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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26563990">Seeing Red</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/nj_1996/pseuds/nj_1996'>nj_1996</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Formula 1 RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anal Sex, Angst, Fluff, M/M, Oral Sex, Rivals to Lovers, Smut</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:00:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>52,573</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26563990</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/nj_1996/pseuds/nj_1996</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>For the 2021 season, Max Verstappen joins Ferrari, next to Golden Boy Charles Leclerc. Their existing rivalry only intensifies as they battle for the #1 spot within the team and over time, they realize their feelings for one another might go a lot further than hate alone…</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Charles Leclerc/Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen, Lando Norris/Carlos Sainz Jr</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>193</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>298</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Fucks & Ferraris</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So...I have absolutely no chill and I started planning this fic the moment I finished the last one...and then I wrote this all day....Why am I like this?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Max was panting heavily as Dan pulled out from behind him. His arms had been struggling to keep his own weight up for a few minutes now, and as the Aussie let go of Max’s hips, they finally gave out. He fell face first into the pillow, letting out a low groan into the expensive hotel fabric that he buried his nose in. The duvet had long since fallen off of the bed, and the rest of the room looked like an absolute battlefield with the way they’d been going at it. He felt absolutely exhausted. They had just completed the final race of the 2020 season here in Abu Dhabi, and Max’s final race for Red Bull had been an absolute disaster. He’d made contact with Alex in the first corner, forcing him to come in for a new front wing on the first lap. He actually managed to get himself back into the top 10 for a while, but had to retire with an electrical issue 2 laps before the chequered flag.</p><p>He had been feeling utterly defeated as he walked to the weight bridge afterwards, not speaking to anyone who wanted to talk to him. He had suddenly remembered Dan eyeing him up back at the driver’s parade, but didn’t really understand why that would suddenly come up in his thoughts again until he felt the Aussie suddenly very close behind him. They had been the best of friends for years now, and Dan always knew precisely when Max needed his release. He put an arm around the Dutchman’s shoulders, giving him a loud ‘’Better luck next time, Maxy.’’ For the cameras, before he whispered ‘’I’m in room 416.’’ Into Max’s ear. After that, he just left without another word.</p><p>Max really hadn’t even considered doing anything else but go to Dan’s after that. He had so wanted to give the team that gave him his chance in F1 a good send off, and the contact in the first corner had just completely ruined it. He needed to just be able to turn off his brain for a little while, and there was no better way to do that than to have Daniel fuck his brains out. After finishing his responsibilities at the circuit and saying goodbye to everyone at Red Bull for the last time, Max didn’t even go back to his own hotel. He instantly went to Dan’s. The Aussie had pulled him into the room as soon as he showed up, and had fucked him into absolute oblivion.</p><p>Now, he could hear Daniel walking around the room behind him for a minute or two, presumably getting rid of the condom and maybe cleaning up some clothing that they had thrown around the room in their haste to get to it. Max could feel his brain trying to focus back on the disappointment of the race, but the sweet ache of the bruises on his hips and the soreness of his ass helped to keep those thoughts away. He just laid there, feeling blissfully high on the afterglow before he was turned over and the cum was wiped away from his torso. He could hear Daniel tut above him, and opened his eyes to see the Aussie in question smirking down at him, those shiny teeth on full display underneath his still beautifully darkened eyes.</p><p>‘’Someone made a real mess of themselves, didn’t they?’’ He more told than asked Max. He continued cleaning his best friend up for a second, trying to get the cum out of his pubes, before he let out a low whistle, letting his fingers run over the already visibly bruising on the Dutchman’s hip. ‘’My my, looks like someone fucked you real good. Wonder who that stud was.’’ He teased, making Max roll his eyes and smack Daniel’s arm. ‘’Fuck you.’’ He just retorted, genuinely not having any energy left to tease or argue in return. ‘’You alright with me spending the night here?’’ He asked Daniel then, putting his bicep over his eyes as he did his very best and failed to stifle a yawn.</p><p>He was unable to see the exaggerated eye roll that Daniel gave him in return as the Aussie threw away the wet wipes with which he cleaned Max up and jumped back onto the bed, lying down on his side and supporting his head with his hand as he looked down at his best friend. ‘’I don’t fuck you like that and force you to get out, Max. You know that.’’ He said for good measure. ‘’In fact I only even remember kicking you out once and that’s because I did not need my trainer to see you naked in my bed.’’ Max glared at Daniel then. ‘’That’s only because you’re fucking him, too!’’ He said, shaking his head. ‘’Still can’t believe you kicked me out so you could go and fuck Michael after.’’</p><p>Daniel started to laugh then and just grinned as he got comfortable underneath the duvet. ‘’Oh hush, you jealous little shit. If you want me that much I’ll allow you to blow me tomorrow morning.’’ Max let out a groan in response and grabbed hold of a pillow, swinging it to hit Daniel in the face. Annoyingly for the Dutchman though, Dan did have F1 driver reflexes, and so he easily caught the thing and threw it aside. He put a hand on his heart then, at looked at Max with a faux-shocked expression. ‘’I am outraged and offended that you would treat me like this after I just fucked your brains out.’’ He told the Dutchman, who just hummed and let out another yawn. </p><p>‘’You know…’’ Dan continued, apparently still not yet finished with teasing Max. ‘’I just realized that instead of a Red Bull boy, I just fucked the second prettiest Ferrari driver. I’m really moving up in the world.’’ Max gave Daniel a long look, before he opened his mouth. ‘’Mate, don’t. I didn’t come here to talk about work. Or fucking Charles Leclerc.’’ He said, which again made Daniel laugh. ‘’Fucking Charles Leclerc? I mean, those are your words mate, not mine. Although I definitely would. Our pretty little Armani model can come into my bed anytime he likes.’’ Max just stared at Dan again for a moment, before he shook his head. ‘’He’s practically still a baby. And an asshole. I’m just pleased I’m gonna take his number one spot in the team next year.’’</p><p>In reply, Max just got a little hum from Daniel, as he pretty much always did when he went off in a rant about the Monaco-born Ferrari driver. ‘’I think that our little Maxy might have a bit of a little crush on Charles.’’ The Aussie teased. ‘’You’re both babies. You still flirt by pulling each other’s hair.’’ He added with a grin. ‘’Charles and Maxy, sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G.’’ Instead of doing anything in return, Max just tried to ignore Daniel and drown him out by burying his face in his pillow. God, Daniel could be so fucking annoying sometimes.</p><p>He had sat through so many of Dan’s antics over the years that most didn’t really get to him anymore. Still though, especially after getting fucked the way that he had, Max was feeling a little needy, not that he would ever willingly admit it. He waited for a moment for Daniel to finally stop teasing him, before he moved a little closer and laid his head down on the Aussie’s chest. ‘’You mind…?’’ He asked quietly. Dan of course, did not in the slightest. He knew Max, knew that he would get like this, it was just a matter of waiting for it to happen. So he tucked the Dutchman in a little and started to play with his hair, allowing Max to cuddle up against his side. ‘’Nah, s’fine.’’ He said and gave a little shrug. They fell asleep together soon after that, both feeling satisfied and relaxed in each other’s arms.</p><p>The first time that Max met Charles in his new, official capacity was at Maranello just after New Year’s. His 3 year deal had officially started on January 1st, and the team wanted Max to come to the factory as soon as possible, to start work on the new car and for his seat and car fitting, given that he was the slightest bit taller than Charles. When he arrived, he first got his big tour through the factory and introductions to the management of the different departments, after which he got shown the car for the 2021 season. Max let out an appreciative whistle as he looked at the scale model in the wind tunnel, looking impressed. ‘’She’s looking good.’’ He said excitedly. ‘’Wow, we’re really getting sexy cars with these new regulation changes.’’</p><p>He spoke with some designers and engineers for a little while longer, before Max was taken along for his seat fitting. It was…quite the moment. He got handed his first Ferrari overalls, and after putting them on he had to look at himself in the mirror for a little while. This was actually real. He had said so many times that he didn’t care about the legendary stature of the Scuderia, that all he needed was a fast car. But to stand here, in Maranello, wearing these scarlet red racing overalls, that was special. He was still looking at himself in the mirror when he suddenly heard a hum behind himself, followed by a distinct French accent. ‘’It’s really strange to see you in those. I’m not sure that red is really your colour.’’ Charles said.</p><p>Max turned around to face Charles and hummed as he looked the Monegasque up and down. ‘’Hello to you too, Charles.’’ He replied. He wasn’t blind, even he had to admit that Charles was looking absolutely stunning, even in the usually unflattering racing overalls. Somehow, Charles just made them work for him in the best way. He offered the Monegasque his hand to shake, which Charles did, and gave him a polite smile. ‘’I’m looking forward to bringing Ferrari back to where they belong after the bad season last year.’’ He told Charles, making just a little reference to the Monegasque being a part of that operation.</p><p>Charles hummed in return. ‘’Yes. Well I’m sure we won’t have to wait long now that we have the biggest racing prodigy of this generation in our team.’’ He replied, before he gave Max a nod and walked away. The tension had been almost tangible in the air even in that short conversation, and Max had to sigh a little as soon Charles was no longer within earshot. It was always like this. Ever since their first races in karting, where they were by far the two best drivers and constantly fighting on track, had they had this escalating rivalry. They both wanted to be the best more than anything, and it was incredibly difficult for any conversation between them not to turn into a shouting match over some kind of crash that had happened 15 years earlier or whatever.</p><p>He tried to shake it off, but thoughts about Charles continued to linger in his mind as he went through the rest of the day. He had his seat fitting and some more meetings with important people and other welcoming activities, after which the team’s PR department decided that for the final activity of the day, it was the best idea in the entire world to get Charles and Max together so that they could make a video for the socials in which Charles would sort of interview Max. Even the thought made him feel a bit nauseous. Max put on the requested team shirt and sat down across the table from Charles. He had taken a moment to himself to put on his very best ‘I like this and I’m totally not being forced to do this by some douche from PR’-face and smiled as the cameras started rolling.</p><p>They went through a number of generic things first. Charles had been handed some cards with questions, and so Max told Charles, but mostly the cameras, where he was born, how old he was, all the normal information. Things got a little more heated as more personal topics started getting mentioned. ‘’Do you have a girlfriend?’’ Charles asked, earning him an incredulous look from Max. ‘There’s no way that’s on there. Let me see that!’’ He told the Monegasque as he reached for the cards. There was just no way. Ferrari was the most secretive team in all of F1 and now they were asking after his personal life? No way. Charles simply tutted in response and sat back, shaking his head. ‘’No, no. I am doing the interview here, answer the question.’’</p><p>‘’Fine.’’ Max spat in return, unable to stop himself from the eye roll that followed. ‘’No. I don’t have a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend for that matter. Do you want the names of my exes too?’’ He told Charles, as he sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, clearly getting a little irritated. Charles meanwhile, just looked endlessly entertained as he was frustrating Max. ‘’I mean, only if they’re interesting.’’ He told the Dutchman with what Max was pretty sure was a cocky smirk. There was rumours all over the paddock that Max and Daniel were fucking, and the longer Max looked at Charles, the more he was convinced that that asshole knew. ‘’Next question: Are you intimidated by a team so big as Ferrari….or their incredible star driver?’’ Max was about to answer Charles and talk about he was excited, rather than intimidated, when the Monegasque insisted on making the question about himself. Well, two could play at that game.</p><p>‘’No, not really. I mean, I’ve been in F1 for 6 years now, so I know how it works. And I know I can beat their other driver, too. I’ve done it before, from last season all the way back to the karting championships.’’ Max replied with a smug little smirk of his own. Charles huffed at that and shook his head. ‘’Try it without cheating.’’ He mumbled, just loud enough for Max to hear. ‘’Are you fucking kidding me?!’’ The Dutchman demanded. He got up and slammed his open palms on the table as he stared Charles down. ‘’Are you still going on about my dad knowing the steward at the karting championship 14 years ago?!’’ He asked Charles angrily.</p><p>‘’Yes. Because that decision was wrong and you know it. They only penalized me because your dad was all friendly with the steward in charge and surely no contact can possibly ever be Max Verstappen’s fault.’’ Charles said mockingly. ‘’It was cheating and you know it and that trophy is rightfully mine.’’ Charles retorted. He crossed his arms as he stared Max down in return, while the Dutchman let out a frustrated noise in disbelief. ‘’You…’’ He started as he pointed at Charles. ‘’Are fucking unbelievable.’’ He took his microphone off then and threw it onto the table, before he started to walk out of the room. ‘’We’re done here!’’ He called to the PR rep that tried to follow him out.</p><p>Max was absolutely fuming as he stepped out of the factory and got back into his brand new Ferrari Roma. He slammed the throttle as he left the complex and was still cursing loudly as he turned the car back into the direction of Monaco. ‘’That smug, egotistic, little asshole.’’ He grumbled, his right hand absent-mindedly going towards the car’s centre console. Before he knew it, he had connected his phone to the car and was calling Daniel, his knuckles turning slightly white by just how hard he was gripping the steering wheel. ‘’Yooooo, Maxy. Had a good first day at work, darling?’’ He asked, laughing a little at himself while Max just stared straight ahead and didn’t even crack a smile. ‘’Dan, are you still in Monaco?’’ The Dutchman asked. When Daniel gave him a positive answer, Max just swallowed thickly. ‘’I need you.’’</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm already so excited about this fic! So many things are gonna happen! Aaaaahhhhh :D</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Pillowtalk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm so happy that so many people seem to like the premise! I'm excited too! Can't wait to really get into the story, even though I still miss my sweet babies from the last fic &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The four and a half hour drive back home to Monaco from Maranello helped to calm Max down a little. He put on some of his favourite playlists and ended up just loudly singing along to them for the majority of the drive. Like Charles, he’d probably fly back and forth to Italy in the future, but he still needed to get his new company car home and he had stupidly offered to drive it to Monaco himself. It would be a fun road trip or something. Another one for his long list of dumb ideas. When he finally got home, Daniel was already waiting for him outside the building. Given that it was January, and so even sort of cold in Monaco, the Aussie was wearing a black leather jacket and torn acid-washed jeans. The sun was starting to go down by now, and so Daniel was wearing a pair of aviators as well to protect his eyes from the glare. Truthfully, he looked fucking sinful in Max’s eyes, and he could feel his mouth watering a little as he drove into the garage and parked the car.</p><p>‘’Daaaaaamn, Maxy. Someone has found the main perk of being a Ferrari driver.’’ Daniel noted with a grin as the Dutchman got out of the car. Max chuckled a little in return and walked over to hug his best friend tightly. ‘’Like you have much to complain about with your brand new McLaren Senna.’’ He told Dan in return, who gave a shrug before he hugged Max back. ‘’Yeah, NOW I have one of those. But I had to drive a Twingo around for two years. And when I still drove for the Bullies I had to drive one of those Infinitis. Neither really scream Formula 1 driver, do they?’’ He patted Max’s back for a moment, before he pulled away. ‘’So, what did you need me for? More sexy shenanigans I’m assuming by the tone of your voice when you called me?’’ He asked with a knowing smirk.</p><p>‘’Yes.’’ Max said instantly, looking hungrily into Daniel’s eyes. ‘’Fuck, I just need…you.’’ He told the Aussie, his voice still coming out frustrated. Dan hummed a little in response and glanced around the parking garage. Deciding that it was too public, he pulled Max into the elevator that would take them straight to the Dutchman’s apartment. He immediately slammed his lips against Max’s once the doors closed, kissing him hard and feeling just how needy Max was when he pulled away with a small frown. ‘’Just so you know, I am very much going to fuck you into next week in a moment, but do you want to talk about whatever the fuck happened in Italy that made you feel this way?’’</p><p>Max did not respond verbally to Daniel’s question. Instead, he wrapped his arms around the Aussie’s neck and jumped up, wrapping his legs around the man’s waist. Daniel was quick to catch Max, squeezing his ass and holding on tightly so that the Dutchman wouldn’t fall. ‘’Fuck, someone really is desperate for it.’’ He noted with a grin. ‘’Your wish is my command, Maxy.’’ As the doors opened onto Max’s apartment, Daniel stumbled inside. He managed to make it to the couch before falling over, landing on top of his best friend as he smirked down at him. “So what do you want me to do to you today then?”</p><p>In response Max let out a needy whine. He started to push Daniel’s leather jacket off his shoulders and groaned when the Aussie wouldn’t budge. “I’m gonna need you to use your words today, mate. Otherwise no dicking for you.” Max was told with a smirk. The Dutchman groaned at first, but finally sighed and looked up into Daniel’s eyes. “I want you to bend me over and fuck me.” He told the Aussie, who turned his ear towards Max a little more so he could hear him more clearly. “I’m sorry, what was that?” He asked, only making Max groan louder. “Will you bend me over and fuck me, please.” He finally said, to which Daniel grinned and sat up and took his jacket off, throwing it aside. “There we go. Was that really so hard?” He asked Max, full well knowing how much he hated it when Daniel teased him like this.</p><p>Daniel thankfully stopped his teasing soon after and did just as he promise, bending Max over the couch and making sure that he was able to get rid of all of his frustrations. Afterwards, they ended up in the shower together, and after Dan finished cleaning himself up with Max’s extremely lacking body wash and shampoo, he leaned against the wall, watching the Dutchman as he crossed his arms. ‘’So, you ready to talk what happened yet?’’ He asked curiously. He had been able to tell just how frustrated Max was as they went at it, but although sex gave him some momentary relaxation, it probably wouldn’t be enough to get it all out of his system.</p><p>Max let out a long, exasperated groan when Daniel asked him about what happened in Italy again and put his head against the tiled shower wall. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply, before he finally turned around and faced his friend. ‘’Fucking Charles Leclerc is what happened.’’ As Max said so, Daniel gasped loudly and put his hands on his cheeks. ‘’Whaaaaaaaat? You actually went and fucked Charles Leclerc?’’ He asked Max while being completely unable to suppress the smirk coming through. Max just looked confused for a second, not really realizing his own words. ‘’What do you….Oh, for fuck’s sake, Dan!’’ He finally said, face palming and shaking his head in absolute disbelief.</p><p>‘’You would though, you know you would.’’ Dan retorted, making Max roll his eyes a little. ‘’That is not the point here, Dan.’’ The Dutchman replied a little angrily. ‘’The point is that he is always such an asshole every time we are forced to interact! The first fucking thing he said to me is that I look bad in red. If that’s not a jab at not wanting me at Ferrari I don’t know what is!’’ Dan stepped closer to Max then and wrapped his arms around the Dutchman, patting his back a little. ‘’There, there. Time to relax.’’ He told his best friend. ‘’It can’t be that bad. He probably didn’t mean it that way, Charles is a nice boy.’’</p><p>Max instantly pulled away when Daniel started to talk like that and frowned deeply. ‘’Seriously? You’re my best friend. The one person who’s supposed to take my side on this. And you’re not?’’ He asked, giving the Aussie a look that mixed disappointment with outrage. Dan sighed deeply then and shrugged a little. ‘’I mean yeah, I do support you 100%. Always. But…it’s just really difficult to see that boy as anything other than sweet as cotton candy.’’ He told Max, who shook his head in disbelief. ‘’You’re unbelievable.’’ He told the Aussie, before he just turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. He grabbed a towel and quickly dragged it over his body once, before he wrapped it around his hips and just stormed out of the room, really not needing this right now.</p><p>He threw himself onto his bed and just stared at the ceiling with a deep sigh as he waited for Daniel to come over and talk him out of being angry, as he always did. It was a couple of minutes before the Aussie finally joined him, a towel wrapped around his hips and another one around his head. ‘’You barely have any hair.’’ Max deadpanned, to which Daniel shook his head. ‘’Other than you, I take care of the temple that is my body. Like, I even got you the expensive body wash and good shampoo and conditioner, where the hell are those?’’ He demanded as he laid down next to the Dutchman. ‘’I used them…’’ Max replied. ‘’They ran out at some point.’’</p><p>‘’You’re just absolutely hopeless.’’ Daniel finally told Max, before he turned onto his side to look at his friend. ‘’Now what the hell is the problem between you and little Charlie? Is it really just a couple of incidents from over a decade ago?’’ Max let out another sigh and shook his head. ‘’It’s that and absolutely everything since. It’s the incidents back in karting, it’s the crashes and times we made contact in F1, it’s the fact that every single time we speak to one another he has to make some sly reference to something private and annoying. I mean, for some fucking reason the PR department though it’d be sooooo fun to have him ‘interview’ me as part of the introduction stuff, which obviously went terrible. He started asking all these personal things, like if I have a girlfriend.’’</p><p>Dan hummed as he listened to Max and couldn’t help but smile at the last part of what he said. ‘’And, do you?’’ He asked with a chuckle. ‘’I told him I didn’t. Or a boyfriend for that matter.’’ Max replied in a huff. ‘’The way that fucker looked at me…He knows about us, Dan. I’m sure he fucking knows.’’ Daniel started looking a little sheepish then and scratched the back of his head as he gave Max an apologetic look. ‘’No…Noooo, Dan. Tell me you didn’t. You did not fucking tell him?!’’ Max practically begged, which, Dan would normally like it when Max begged him, but not in this context. ‘’So……remember how Charles and I went to Vegas and got like super drunk? I might’ve told him then…but I genuinely did not think that he remembered any of it…’’</p><p>Max had to turn around then, grabbing a pillow and absolutely screaming into it, before he used that same pillow to start smacking Daniel on the head. ‘’Are you fucking kidding me?! You told him and you didn’t even have the guts to let me know about it?!’’ He kept going at Dan for about half a minute, before he threw the pillow at a wall and fell back down onto his back, groaning loudly as he stared up at the ceiling. ‘’I deserved that…’’ Daniel finally told Max. He glanced at the clock then and sighed. ‘’I gotta go actually. I have another appointment in an hour.’’</p><p>That statement pulled Max back from his anger enough that he sat up and looked down at his friend with a frown. ‘’Like…a sex date…?’’ He asked, looking slightly confused, to which Daniel started laughing again. ‘’No, you moron. A sponsor thing. They want me to model a new watch or whatever.’’ He shook his head and patted Max’s head as he sat up. ‘’You’re so dumb and adorable.’’ He told the Dutchman as he got up and started to find his clothes around the apartment. ‘’Well I’m still really fucking angry with you!’’ Max called over to the living room. ‘’I know, honey. Love you too!’’ Came the reply.</p><p>Daniel left soon after and sadly, he’d be busy in England for the foreseeable future, so Max would have to do without him for a least a little while. He didn’t end up being alone for very long though. He was halfway through his daily training session the day after when he got a call from Mattia, asking him to come to the factory the very next day. The new simulator had finally been fully installed and tested, and now it was time for the team’s actual drivers to come and take it for a spin with the car data for the new season. They’d be there for at least a day, with more added on if needed. And much to Max’s endless delight, the team had already taken care of transport for both him and Charles. A jet would be ready to fly them to Bologna, together. Which was just the worst idea anyone had ever had if the same people hadn’t also thought of the little interview between him and Charles.</p><p>To make matters worse for Max, Charles had already very graciously offered to drive the both of them to the airport as well. Great. Just great. Max spent the rest of the afternoon sulking a little about being forced to spend time with Charles again, and was just finishing up packing a bag the next day when the doorbell rang. He threw the bag over his shoulder then and made his way to the front door. He opened it, and his breath was practically taken away by what he saw on the other side. Charles looked absolutely impeccable, seemingly even without trying. The Monegasque was wearing a pair of tight black jeans under his bright red Ferrari polo-shirt and his extremely messy hair was somewhat held together by a matching red and white bandana. His shades were tucked into his popped open collar, and Max swallowed a little as he spotted just the tiniest bit of chest hair.</p><p>Fuck. No. Fuck. This wasn’t happening. He wasn’t checking out Charles Leclerc. No fucking way in hell that he would ever sink so low. No. But then…why couldn’t he take his eyes off of him? Charles finally cleared his throat then, and raised his eyebrows at Max. ‘’Hello? Max? I said you good morning…’’ The Monegasque said, waving a hand in front of Max which shook him awake. ‘’Uhm, yeah. Morning.’’ Max replied. He quickly stepped out of his apartment and closed the door behind him. ‘’Where the hell were you? You were just staring at me…’’ Charles noted with a bit of a chuckle. ‘’Nothing, just…I didn’t know we had to put on our Ferrari kit already…’’ Max replied, hoping that was enough of a save as they went down to the garage.</p><p>The drive over to the airport was done mostly in silence. Max didn’t really want to speak with Charles, he was still pissed off at what happened a few days earlier. It didn’t take long though, for him to talk about anyway, because he just had absolutely no cool. ‘’What the fuck was that interview, Charles? It’s so not done to talk about personal lives and about infinitely worse to talk about relationships or sexualities or whatever the fuck that was.’’ Max finally spat, the words coming out a lot angrier than he had originally intended. Apparently, talking to Charles just had that effect on him.</p><p>The Monegasque just shrugged a little and kept his eyes focused on the road ahead. ‘’Dunno. I just asked what was on the cards. I can’t help it that you’re not of the girlfriend variety.’’ He told Max, who just looked at Charles completely dumbstruck. ‘’Excuse you? Are you seriously being a homophobe right now?’’ Max wasn’t about to deny anything, not after Daniel had apparently told Charles everything he could ever possibly want to know, but the tone in which Charles spoke to him was shocking to say the least.</p><p>‘’What?’’ Charles asked, before he glanced at Max with a confused frown on his face. ‘’Oh, no! I…no I didn’t mean it like that, Max!’’ He said quickly, stumbling a little over his words and pretty much doubling the strength of his accent in his panic to clean up the mess. ‘’I just meant to say that that was what it said on the card. I swear.’’ He seemed pretty genuine in his apology, and Max was about to say so and leave it there for the time being, when Charles continued. ‘’I mean, I’m not exclusively into girls either…’’ And that was about the most unexpected coming out Max had ever heard in his life.</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Reveals</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>God, writing is hard. And it takes up so much time. Y'all are lucky I'm not moving for almost 2 months because I still have free time left! :p<br/>Jokes aside though, love you all for reading. The reception to the new fic has been incredible, and I'm beyond excited at all the nice comments that I got &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘’You’re what now…?’’ Max asked after staying quiet for what felt like about an eternity. This coming out had come out of absolutely nowhere, at least as far as Max was concerned. Charles on the other hand just frowned a little and glanced at the Dutchman before he replied to him. ‘’Didn’t you know that I’m bi…?’’ He asked, to which Max just raised his hands in disbelief. ‘’No of course I fucking didn’t know that!’’ He told the Monegasque. ‘’How was I supposed to know that you’re apparently into guys, too? I don’t pry into your personal life the way that you apparently do with mine!’’ Charles didn’t really react to Max’s accusation, he just hummed a little. ‘’Huh, I figured Daniel would’ve told you so.’’ </p><p>That sentence was when Max pretty much lost it entirely. Dan had told Charles that they were casually fucking, but he hadn’t thought it necessary to share this gigantic news with Max? He was going to absolutely kill the Aussie. Max was pretty sure that Charles had caught on to what he was thinking, because he had this smug little smile on his face for the rest of the short drive to the airport, while Max was just constantly bouncing his knee in impatience, just wanting to get to Italy already so that he could scream at Daniel in private. He didn’t really talk to Charles on the plane at all, aside from when the Monegasque reminded him to change into his Ferrari shirt. Annoyingly, Max didn’t actually bring any, having figured that he’d just get one at the factory, and so he had to borrow off of Charles. Thank god they were the same size. </p><p>‘’Hmmm, looks better on you than the overalls.’’ Charles commented when Max had put it on. ‘’Or maybe it’s just my shirt that looks good.’’ He added with a bit a smirk. He turned away then, returning to his apparently incredibly interesting text conversation, while Max just looked confused. What did that mean? Did Charles mean that the shirt looked good on him, or that he liked Max wearing his clothes…? He shrugged it off for the time being, and instead just sat down too, looking out the window and forgetting the conversation a little as he enjoyed the gorgeous Italian countryside.</p><p>The day itself at the factory went by fairly quickly. Max and Charles switched between sim-testing and giving feedback multiple times, until the day was finally ended by having dinner with the entire team out in the town. After that, a car brought Max and Charles to their hotel for the night, where Max would finally have a private moment to yell at his best friend. He said a quick goodnight to Charles, after which he went to his own room and pretty much just threw his bag aside in favour of lying down on the bed and instantly calling Daniel.</p><p>Daniel picked up after a few rings, seemingly unaware of any wrongdoing. ‘’Yooooooo, Maxy. What’s up?’’ He asked excitedly, apparently in a good mood. ‘’You fucker.’’ Max replied, which made Daniel laugh. ‘’Well that’s gonna be a little difficult right now, given that I’m in the UK and you’re in Italy, soooo…’’</p><p>‘’No, you dick! How the fuck could you tell Charles about us and NOT tell me that Charles is bisexual?! What the hell? You don’t just forget to mention something like that!’’ Max yelled in return. It was quiet on the other end of the line for a moment, before Daniel replied. ‘’Huh…Guess I didn’t dream that then.’’ He said and just started laughing at himself again. ‘’Maxy, you have to understand that I was very, very drunk at the time and I was about 69% sure that I’d dreamt Charles telling me that. But it’s true then huh? Damn. Seems like someone over there actually does have a chance to fulfil a long-time dream of fucking Charles Leclerc!’</p><p>Max let out a loud groan. ‘’How many times do I have to tell you that I do NOT. WANT. TO. FUCK. CHARLES. LECLERC?!’’ He yelled back at Dan, before he just ended the call. He was done. He felt angry, betrayed, and above all very confused. His mind was still going back to Charles looking so good when he’d showed up at Max’s door that morning, and the Dutchman absolutely hated himself for actually thinking that his biggest rival in the world was…pretty hot.</p><p>It was a very, very long 2.5 months until the Australian Grand Prix. Max was forced to spend a lot more time with Charles. They still didn’t really talk at all, besides the forced together sponsor/social media things, and when they did, it usually ended up as a screaming competition. As difficult as their personal relationship was though, so smooth was the development of the car. Max and Charles complemented each other almost completely, and the engineering and design teams had all the feedback they could every possibly need to improve what turned out was already a really good car in the base-version. The team was incredibly optimistic as they headed to pre-season testing and as it turned out, that was for good reason. Both Max and Charles felt like they were both flying across the track and stuck to it like they were driving on train tracks. The car was a monster, and the data coming out of testing was telling them exactly that as well.</p><p>It didn’t go unnoticed in the slightest, and everywhere around them, stories about the next big championship rivalry between teammates started to pop up. After the last day of testing, Max flew back to Monaco with Daniel. The Aussie was planning on staying with him for the week, after which they’d fly over to Australia together. They met up at the airport from their different hotels, and when Max finally made his way onto the jet, he found that Daniel was already in there. ‘’Theeeeere he is. Mister favourite for the world championship. How does it feel to know what everyone wants to be you?’’ He asked with a grin. </p><p>Max laughed a little and sat down, putting his seatbelt on before he responded. ‘’Hi to you too, Dan. And…you know…is that really anything different? People already want to be me.’’ He responded with a bit of a cocky smirk. ‘’Yeah, because you get to hang out with both me and Ferrari’s prettiest driver. But now it’s actually on your own merit.’’ The Aussie teased, which earned him a glare from Max. ‘’Fuck you, mate.’’ He said, making Dan grin even wider. ‘’Nah, you’re gonna have to wait just a little bit longer for that.’’ He responded with a wink.</p><p>The week in Monaco went by pretty quickly. They did their usual stuff. Hung out, played some games, had a casual fuck here and there, and did all their daily workouts together. It was on day four, when they were out running together on the Boulevard, that Max suddenly heard a familiar voice behind him. ‘’Hey, you guys! Wait up!’’ Max groaned a little and closed his eyes as he stopped running. He took a deep breath then, putting on a smile and turning around with a smile on his face. ‘’Hey, Charles. You out running here, too?’’ He said. Or…well he was going to, but seeing Charles, all sweaty, wearing another one of those fucking bandanas around his head, in a tight fitting and absolutely drenched grey shirt and in black shorts that didn’t even really reach his knees, it came out more like ‘’Hi…’’</p><p>‘’Hey.’’ Charles replied happily as he started stretching a little, and oh god Max’s mouth felt so dry. ‘’Can I be with you guys? It’s a bit boring to do it on my own.’’ Max nearly fainted then. Fucking Charles Leclerc and his never ending innuendo because of that fucking accent. He had realized at this point that he was developing a little bit of a crush on that Monegasque asshole, which was about the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone in history ever, since he still couldn’t stand him. He was so annoying. And pretty. Fuck.</p><p>Since Max wasn’t looking like he was going to reply to Charles anytime soon, Dan stepped in. ‘’Yeah, ‘course. The more the merrier. As long as you can keep up with us, Charlie.’’ He told the Monegasque with a wink, before they all went back on their way. Before long, it inevitably turned into a little competition between Max and Charles, like everything else always did. They both started to up the speed in an attempt to make the other one give up, and finally Dan just lagged behind with a shake of his head. ‘’Absolute children.’’ He said, to nobody in particular, before he just followed them at his own relaxed pace. </p><p>Max and Charles kept going at it for a while, until they were both finally out of breath at practically the exact same time. Max had to hold himself up against a street lamp, while Charles just laid down on a bench, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath again. ‘’I…won.’’ The Monegasque finally said between breaths, making Max shake his head. ‘’Are you…fucking….kidding me? I clearly…clearly beat you…Jesus Christ.’’ He said, groaning a little as he got back upright. His actual lungs hurt a little, which wasn’t ideal. It wasn’t long before Daniel finally joined them, tutting and shaking his head as he stopped. ‘’I just can’t leave you kids alone, can I? Always messing up and trying to make yourselves throw up by overexertion. Come on, let’s go home and I’ll make you both a smoothie and some lunch.’’</p><p>Dan took the both of them along to Max’s apartment, with both Max or Charles really feeling a little too tired after their run to care about being forced to hang out with each other. They went up in the elevator to Max’s apartment, and as soon as the doors opened and walked in, Dan made a bit of a face. ‘’Riiiight, I just remembered what I forgot to do…’’ He said, while Charles frowned. ‘’Oh god it smells like sex in here.’’ He noted. The door to Max’s bedroom was wide open, and the Monegasque could not help a glance inside. ‘’Jesus Christ guys, you could at least clean up a little after yourselves…’’ He told them. Max was at his bedroom door in the blink of an eye, pulling it closed. ‘’Not another word.’’ He told Charles, looking very serious and blushing just a tiny, little bit. </p><p>‘’I’m gonna take a shower, be with you guys soon…’’ He told the pair then, before he did actually go into his bedroom to use the en-suite. He cleaned up the bedroom a little first, after which Max treated himself to a good long shower, washing away the embarrassment of Charles walking into his apartment while it was still such a mess from earlier that morning. Fuck…Charles. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about how good his messy hair had looked as he came running up to them? Or how he kind of wanted to just run behind the Monegasque, so that he could check out his ass a little as he ran? Focus Max. Focus. He did not have a crush on Charles Leclerc. He couldn’t. It was impossible. He continued to tell himself this as he dried off and got back dressed, before he walked back into the living room. As he did, he pretty much walked into a very shirtless Charles. Oh god, those abs, those arms, those…everything. Okay…so maybe he did have a tiny crush on him.</p><p>‘’What is…How…Where is your shirt…?’’ Max asked, trying to fight the blush that was trying to creep onto his face as he looked at Charles’ incredible looking physique. ‘’Uhm…I did a shower while you were in there and I didn’t want to put my workout shirt back on and Dan said that I could probably borrow something off of you…’’ The Monegasque replied. Max swallowed thickly then, needing a second to process the request before it all clicked into a place, as even Charles’ accent was insufferably pretty. ‘’Ah, uh yeah, sure.’’ He told Charles, heading back into his bedroom before he returned with a plain white shirt that he handed over. ‘’Thanks.’’ Came the reply, as Charles put it on.</p><p>‘’Children, I made lunch!’’ Came the call from the kitchen then, and both Max and Charles quickly head over to eat whatever Dan had made. They were starving. They spent some more time together that afternoon, and under Daniel’s ever positive influence, even Max and Charles managed to get somewhat along. Things were pretty much ruined again when they started playing some videogames and their competitiveness came up again, but overall it was an okay day.</p><p>Max and Dan flew to Australia a couple of days later, going to Perth first and doing a road trip over to Melbourne in the days after. They were really enjoying themselves, and discovering Australia with Dan as his guide was absolutely incredible, but still. There was something that Max just could not at all get out of his head, no matter how hard he tried. Finally, towards the end of the second day of their road trip, he sighed deeply and glanced at Dan as the Aussie was driving their car. ‘’I think I have a crush on Charles.’’ He told his best friend, nervously biting his lip as he stared at him to gauge his response. Which wasn’t anything like the shock and or outrage he expected.</p><p>‘’FINALLY!’’ Dan let out, raising his hands towards the sky for a moment, before they were back on the wheel. ‘’God, I have been waiting for this moment for so fucking long.’’ He told Max, whose frown got deeper and deeper with every passing second. ‘’You…what? You knew?’’ He asked the Aussie, who snorted and shook his head. ‘’So, here’s the thing Maxy. You’re not as subtle as you think you are. In fact, you’re pretty much the least subtle person I think I have ever met in my entire life.’’</p><p>Max just looked at Dan extremely confused and shook his head as he continued to frown. ‘’What are you talking about? When have I not been subtle?’’ He asked his friend, who just started to laugh a little. ‘’Okay, get ready, cause here it comes. First, you absolutely never, and I mean never, shut up about the guy. It’s always Charles this and Charles that. And yeah, I know he’s your teammate and whatever, but he’s still not supposed to be on your mind for every second of every day. Secondly, the stares. God, Maxy. You stare at him like he’s a piece of meat that you want to devour whenever he dresses himself up. Or down, really. Remember when we all went for a run and hung out together and you saw him without a shirt? I genuinely thought your eyeballs were going to pop out of their sockets.’’</p><p>Daniel went on to list a lot more examples of Max not being subtle, which apparently included Max smelling the shirt he had loaned Charles after getting it back from the Monegasque, as well as the Dutchman mumbling Charles’ name in his sleep a few times after just having had particularly good sex with Daniel, as the Aussie put it himself.</p><p>Max felt like he was going to die from embarrassment. He put his shades on and pulled his cap as far over his eyes as it would go, groaning loudly when Daniel finally stopped talking. He spotted the ‘Welcome to Melbourne’ sign as they drove into the city and sighed deeply. This was going to be such a long fucking season.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Victory</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry I didn't update yesterday guys, but I was feeling really sick and stressed and just...exhausted at the world. But I slept 9 much needed hours last night, so here is the new chapter!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>To say that Max and Charles were dominating the weekend of the Australian Grand Prix would be an understatement. Their race pace in free practice had already seemed unbeatable, and when Charles qualified 1st, 0.059 second ahead of Max in 2nd, but over 6 tenths clear of the rest of the field, all of the press was pretty certain that if that Ferrari turned out to be reliable as well, the championship fight for the 2021 season would be between Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, the brand new Ferrari pairing.</p><p>And whereas Ferrari desperately wanted to keep the peace within the team, and had even told Max and Charles as much during their race briefing on Friday, neither man could resist the temptation of giving some spicy quotes during the press conference after qualifying. </p><p>Journalist: Max, up until now you’ve always defeated your teammates in qualifying over the season? Yet now you’re up against someone who scored 7 pole positions in their first season and already behind after the first qualifying? Do you think you’re able to beat Charles in qualifying this year?<br/>Max: *chuckles* Of course. I think it’s more worrying for Charles that’s I’m already less than a tenth behind while working in a team that he’s been in for 2 years to be honest.</p><p>Journalist: Charles, your first pole of the season, beating your teammate. Do you think you’re the favourite for the title this season?<br/>Charles: If we can keep this up then I think so, yes. This is my third year for the team, I know them inside and out and I think that I have the speed to keep everyone else behind if I have the car to do it.</p><p>It was an understatement to say that the team wasn’t happy with the little jabs either of the guys kept trying to give one another, even though neither Max nor Charles seemed to really care much about that when they were told as much. They just completely ignored each other throughout the entirety of that meeting, only speaking to other members of the team, but never each other. </p><p>Race day was incredibly tense for Max. It just felt different. Not just because it was his first race for Ferrari, but also because of what the race was promising to be. If he won, it would be his first time to ever lead the world championship. It would mean that he could really do it this year, be everything that he ever dreamt of being. He was nervous, his heartrate was significantly higher than usual and for the entirety of the parade lap, he was almost busier keeping an eye on Charles’ car than making sure his own was sufficiently prepared.</p><p>Everything changed though, as soon as the lights turned on one by one. One…two…three…four…five………lights out. It was as though everything around him fell away as he shot out from his starting position with nothing but pure focus and determination in his eyes. On his left, Charles’ start was almost as good as his own. He managed to pretty much get on the inside of his teammate as they approached the first corner, but just didn’t manage to get past, given that Charles could carry extra speed through the outside line. </p><p>After that, overtaking opportunities were few and far between. The Melbourne circuit was too tight to really overtake anyone, and given that their cars were equal, Max did not have enough over speed to really try anything special. They pulled away from the rest of the field by about half a second a lap though, and soon it was just them fighting for the win. Normally, Max would’ve opted to take the undercut at this point, allowing him to try and overtake Charles by pitting a lap before him so he could try and get past with an amazingly fast out lap.</p><p>Annoyingly though, the rule within the team was that the driver in front could make the call. Max was constantly within 2 seconds of Charles, and he was absolutely sure that he was faster, but there was just nothing he could do. Charles finally pitted first after 21 laps, switching from the soft to the medium tyre to finish the race on. Max knew the strategy, and so when he pitted a lap later, he decided to switch to the hard tyres instead. They had practically no threat from behind, and so the only chance to get past Charles was to do something different, and to hope his tyres would last longer than the Monegasque’s.</p><p>For a long time, it seemed like it had been the wrong decision. Max was almost 4 seconds behind Charles as he exited the pits, and whatever he did, he just couldn’t seem to catch up anymore. From lap 45 onwards though, that changed. Charles started to show a significant drop in pace, and Max was able to catch up with him with about 7 more laps to go. He could hear his race engineer on the radio, telling him to ‘’Keep it clean, Max. Go for it if you get a gap, but keep it clean.’’ He shook his head at that, and huffed a little. ‘’I’m fighting for a win here, mate! I’ll ******* send it if I can!’’ He replied, before he had to focus completely.</p><p>Lap 52 passed, without an opportunity. 53…54…55…56...they were approaching the last lap, and Max knew he would have one chance and one chance alone. He had to get past Charles on the main straight as they started the final lap, or it’d all be over. He had charged all of his hybrid systems to their maximum capacities, and was only 0.6 behind Charles as they approached the final corner.</p><p>Heading out of it, Max unleashed absolutely everything the car had in it, and, using DRS, he came closer, and closer. Charles stayed on the outside line to defend, and Max followed him for a moment, fully taking advantage of the slipstream, before he put his car side by side with Charles.</p><p>Together, they approached turn 1, in almost the exact same way as they had after the start. This time though, Max wasn’t about to give up. This time, He was going to make the move stick. He was millimetres ahead of Charles as they hit the braking zone, but as Charles turned in, Max hadn’t yet. He could feel a shock on the side of the car as they hit wheel to wheel, but managed to keep it straight, turning in for the corner and hitting the apex as he shot into first place.</p><p>Charles on the other hand, was less lucky. Max could see the dust in his mirrors, and he knew that Charles had gone off. He was about halfway down the second straight when he saw some red re-appearing in the distance behind, and he figured that his teammate was still in P2 as he turned the next corner.</p><p>More importantly though, he was in P1. He was on his way to win the Australian Grand Prix, get to first in the championship, and to show that arrogant little Monegasque just where he belonged. In second place. When he crossed the line, he was absolutely ecstatic, cheering and thanking his team for the entirety of the cool down lap as he waved to the crowds and marshals.</p><p>He parked the car at the giant #1 sign and got out, running towards his new mechanics and jumping into their arms as they all hugged and congratulated him. Once he pulled away, he saw Charles sulking a little. Max went over to thank him for a good and fun race, but to his surprise, the Monegasque gave him an absolutely murderous glare, before he walked away, completely ignoring Max’s outstretched hand.</p><p>Max was almost frozen for a second, before he just blinked a few times and just tried to carry on like nothing had happened. His move hadn’t been unfair, right? He had just absolutely send it to the inside and he had definitely been ahead at the braking zone, so he had right of way. Charles was just overreacting, as usual. He congratulated Lewis on a well-deserved third place then, and went upstairs to join in on the podium celebrations, the national anthem, the trophy and most importantly, the champagne!</p><p>He spent pretty much the rest of the day at the circuit after that, doing media duties and sitting through Charles’ endless complaining in the post-race press conference about how his move should’ve been penalized. He decided to completely ignore it in turn, and couldn’t help but smirk a little when he realized Charles was only getting more worked up about it next to him when he did so.</p><p>Once Max was finally allowed to, he almost instantly left Australia, planning on spending some nice, relaxing time at home and enjoying the fact that he was actually leading the world championship. Sadly though, that relative peace and quiet was short lived. After spending 2 days trying to get rid of his jet lag, it was still giving Max some trouble and it meant that he was still asleep at noon. He groaned loudly when he heard the doorbell and pulled the duvet over his head to shield himself from the sound, but it just wouldn’t stop. Angered by whoever this incessant asshole was, Max finally found the will to crawl out of bed and at least put some sweatpants on, before he walked over to the door and opened it.</p><p>When he opened the door, he had to rub at his eyes a little, about 50% sure he was still asleep. ‘’What…..Charles?’’ He asked. Charles was at his door. Charles Leclerc. Looking sweaty. And gorgeous. And obviously mid-run. ‘’What are you doing here…?’’ Max asked as he stared at the Monegasque.</p><p>Charles looked like he was about to punch Max in the face. His chest was still heaving, and Max was pretty sure that the Monegasque had just run up the stairs. He could see as Charles’ eyes roamed across his body, and Max suddenly felt incredibly naked. He hadn’t put on a shirt, and it was really weird to talk to his teammate like this. </p><p>He realized then that Charles still hadn’t said a word, and the silence hanging between him was getting really tense. ‘’Uhm…Do you want to…’’ Max started, before he was interrupted. Charles stepped over the threshold then, slamming his lips against Max and wrapping his arms around the Dutchman’s waist as he pulled him in close. ‘’Shut up.’’ The Monegasque mumbled. ‘’Just fucking shut up.’’ </p><p>Max had no idea what the fuck was happening, but he wasn’t sure that he really cared either. Somehow, as rough and angry as Charles was being with him, this just felt so fucking right. He could feel it as Charles slammed the door shut with his foot, before he was being pressed up against it with a gasp. ‘’Fuck…’’ Max said when he had a moment of respite. ‘’Charles…what…’’</p><p>The Monegasque just glared at Max again as he stared him down and pretty much kicked his shoes off. ‘’I’m going to fucking show you who’s number one here.’’ Charles told Max, before he grabbed his hand and dragged him along to the Dutchman’s bedroom. Once there, the almost threw Max onto bed, took off his own shirt and climbed on top of his teammate, towering over him with a smirk as Max stared up at the Monegasque.</p><p>Charles looked like a man on a mission. He had a look of determination in his darkened eyes, a smirk on his face and Max could still see the little beads of sweat on the man’s forehead. And he had never felt more turned on in his life. ‘’You think you’re so great. Trying to steal my spot in the team. Driving me off the track without a penalty. I’m going to put you in your fucking place.’’</p><p>Max was breathing heavily as he stared up into Charles’ eyes and could not help the little whimper that escaped him as he stared up at the Monegasque. ‘’Please…’’ He said quietly. Charles smirked then, knowing that this was really happening now that he had Max’s consent. He pulled away then, undressing the both of them, before he just stood at the foot of the bed, touching himself as he looked at Max.</p><p>The Dutchman stared at Charles with hungry eyes. All the concerns that he had had beforehand had completely left his mind. The Monegasque was so incredibly fucking hot, and Max had to hold himself back from just begging Charles to fuck him. Apparently, his need was noticed, because Charles’s smile only got wider as he looked into Max’s eyes and took a step back. ‘’Why don’t you get on your knees and suck me off, Maxy.’’ He said, the disdain dripping from the last word of the sentence.</p><p>For just a moment, Max fought it in his mind. It felt humiliating, to give Charles control over him like that, but on the other hand, he really, really wanted to blow his teammate. His horniness easily won out in the end, and Max dropped down on his knees in front of Charles, giving him as good a blowjob as he possibly could. As he did, he could feel Charles’ fingers in his hair, tugging and making him take just a little more as he told Max how good a boy he was for taking him so well.</p><p>It should embarrass Max just how much that turned him on. It really should, but it didn’t. He fucking loved it. He kept blowing Charles until the Monegasque pulled away, and almost whined when he finally did. Charles just smirked down at Max then, and patted his cheek a little. ‘’Don’t worry, Maxy. I’m not close to done with you yet. On the bed. All fours.’’ Max did not need to be told twice. He instantly got on the bed the way Charles wanted him to and bit his lip. ‘’Condom and lube in the second drawer…’’ He said, hearing the Monegasque chuckle a little behind him. ‘’So fucking desperate.’’ Charles said, the smirk audible in his voice.</p><p>He retrieved both items and got to work then, opening Max up so he could properly take him. Once Max was like mush in Charles’ hands, desperately begging for the Monegasque to finally fuck him, did Charles as he was asked. He put the condom on himself and fucked Max from behind, hard and rough and angry, like he still felt at the Dutchman. Max felt like he was on cloud nine. Somehow, even Charles being this rough with him still felt absolutely incredible, and he couldn’t hold himself back as he came hard a few minutes later, almost screaming his teammates name as he hit his high.</p><p>Charles fucked him through it, with the Monegasque only coming a minute or so later, pulling out just before and coming all over Max’s back. Max fell face down onto the bed immediately after, and heard Charles throwing the condom away, before the footsteps moved to his side of the bed. He could see Charles crouching down in his peripheral vision, and almost let out a little noise of content when he felt a thumb gently caress his cheek. </p><p>The last thing Max remembered was a soft kiss on the top of his head and the drag of a cloth over his body to clean him up a little., before his body gave in and he fell back asleep, completely exhausted from being used like that by Charles. What he didn’t hear was the front door a few minutes later, as Charles left and let the door fall shut behind him.</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Aftermath</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sadly, the amount of updates is getting a little less, guys. I can't keep up the one a day. I think I'm gonna try and push it back to every 2 days for the time being, or I'm just going to burn out completely.<br/>Thank you for all the support though, it really motivates me to keep going!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Oh god. What had he done? Did that actually just happen? Did he actually just have sex with his teammate and love it? This was about a hundred different kinds of wrong and terrible. This could not happen again. Not ever. It was completely unacceptable to act in this way, even if he did have the biggest crush on him. Fuck. Just…try and relax, think of anything else.</p><p>As he walked home, Charles was completely stuck in his own mind. He genuinely could not believe that he had just done that. He had just fucked Max Verstappen. What the hell was happening? He’d just gone over there to be angry at Max, and he kind of wanted to punch him in the face a little bit. But…it was like his brain just short-circuited when the Dutchman opened the door like that. Shirtless, his hair sticking up everywhere, looking clearly still half asleep and his sweatpants riding deliciously low on his hips. Charles just couldn’t resist in the slightest, he’d just had to have him right then and there.</p><p>The only thing that he slightly regretted was being so rough with Max. It had been incredibly hot at the time, and it was mostly due to being so incredibly angry when he had gone over in the first place, but he had felt just a tiny bit guilty afterwards and had made sure that Max really was okay before he left the apartment. There was no way he was going to stay behind though. Having sex with Max was bad enough, there was no way that he was going to stay and actually talk to him. There was no way in hell that was going to end well.</p><p>Fucking Dan. It was all his fault. Charles had stayed behind in Australia on Sunday evening, having booked a flight home on Monday morning. After spending some time moping at the track, the Aussie decided that they needed to go out. He took Charles out clubbing and decided for the both of them that they were going to get very, very drunk. Dan though, the goddamn lightweight, was barely four drinks in when he started to tell Charles intimate secrets again.</p><p>Charles had managed to ignore them for the most part, but when Daniel said ‘’Yeah…like you know. Our little Maxy just has the biggest fucking crush on you. He’s such a cutie.’’ Charles pretty much choked on his drink. He could not believe his own ears. Max Verstappen, the guy who probably hated him more than anyone else in the world, supposedly had a crush on him? And a big one at that?</p><p>That thought rattled around in Charles’ head for 48 hours, all the way back from Australia to Monaco. Finally, he had decided to go on a run to clear his mind. Which helped…for a little while. Then he started to think about Max having a crush on him again, and the more he did, the angrier at Max he got. In the end, he went over there and then they…oh god, the was thinking about it again. God, it had felt just so fucking good. And really, all the anger that he had felt at Max was pretty much gone now, too.</p><p>When he finally got home, he decided to call the person who really was the cause of all of this shit. Daniel Goddamn Ricciardo. Charles laid down on the couch with a heavy sigh, plucking a little at the shirt he had…borrowed…from Max, as he called the Aussie and waited for him to pick up. When Daniel finally did, it was with a long, laboured groan. ‘’Charlie…do you know what time it is over here?’’ He asked.</p><p>Charles felt a little bit bad at apparently calling Daniel while he was asleep, but there were more important matters at hand here. ‘’I just fucked Max.’’ He just let out, unable to not say it out loud for a second longer. The other end of the line stayed quiet for a long time, and Charles realized that this was probably the first time in human history that anyone had made Daniel Ricciardo speechless. </p><p>‘’Dan? Are you there…?’’ Charles finally asked, and he could hear Dan clearing his throat on the other end of the line then. ‘’Yeah…yeah. I’m sorry mate, for a second there I thought I heard you saying that you just fucked Max?’’ He said, although it came out sounding more like a question at the end there. ‘’I did…’’ Charles said. It was quiet again for a moment, before Dan just finally started to laugh. ‘’I really can’t leave you two fuckwits alone for a minute, can I? You either bash each other’s brains in or apparently start fucking when I’m not there to supervise.’’ </p><p>Charles was pretty sure he could hear Daniel shaking his head on him, and the Aussie just kept on laughing for a minute until he continued. ‘’So how was it, any good?’’ He asked curiously. ‘’Max is a great fuck, isn’t he?’’ Charles blushed just a little at the question and cleared his throat a little. ‘’I mean…god yes.’’ He told Daniel. ‘’He’s so good. And he wants to be so good and…I really want to do that again even though it’s the worst possible idea I think I’ve ever had in my life.’’ Charles let out a bit of a sigh then. ‘’I mean, I left immediately after Max fell asleep, too. It’s a bit of a dick move.’’ </p><p>‘’Huh…’’ Daniel said, that last statement making him a little uncomfortable. ‘’Are you sure Maxy was okay? He doesn’t really look like it, but he’s a sensitive boy and he needs some aftercare from time to time…’’ Dan said, clearly a little worried about his best friend. ‘’So I did clean him up and checked him to make sure he was fine before I left…but he is gonna wake up alone…’’ Charles admitted as he bit down on his lip. </p><p>‘’I mean…I’m not gonna go back there now, right? That’s too weird. I’m not sure that this is really something that we should ever mention again to be honest. It’s just a one-time thing and a fluke and we should just never address it ever again.’’ Dan let out a long sighed at Charles’ rant and shook his head. ‘’Charlie. One thing at a time. First Max, then your personal issues.’’ He told the Monegasque, making Charles let out a guilty little noise.</p><p>‘’I will call Max in a bit and make sure that he’s okay and send you a text afterwards. If he’s not, you have a lot to answer for young man.’’ Daniel said seriously. ‘’Now, secondly. Both you and Max obviously have the cutest little crushes on each other. Whyyyy don’t you just give in to those and make out and maybe actually talk about them?’’ He suggested. ‘’Or, I don’t know…have dinner together? Like a date.’’</p><p>Charles let out a groan at both of Daniel’s suggestions and shook his head. ‘’I’d feel so guilty if he isn’t okay…’’ He said and sighed deeply. ‘’And…no, Dan. We can’t. We’re rivals, we’re teammates, we…we don’t even like each other!’’ He told the Aussie, who snorted. ‘’Suuuuuuure, totally don’t like each other. The definition of crushes and fucking, but do go on.’’</p><p>Charles sighed at Daniel, before he finally continued. ‘’Dan…just…you know what it’s like. It just can’t happen. You know that. It might be better that we just got it out of our systems now and move on to other things. Right…?’’ Even Charles was doubting that one. He had had crushes in the past. This just felt different. Stronger. More intense. And he generally didn’t get to fuck the people he was just crushing on either… ‘’I just…I have to think about it, Daniel. I’ll let you go back to sleep now.’’</p><p>Dan just hummed softly in response. ‘’I can’t. Cause now I’m up and I’m worrying about my best friend and I need to call him awake to see whether you broke him or not. I’ll let you know, Charlie. Speak soon, yeah?’’ They ended their call after that, and it wasn’t long after that Max’s phone started ringing incessantly.</p><p>The Dutchman let out a long, annoyed groaned and reached for it, declining the call before he just went back to sleep. When his phone started ringing again a few seconds later, he decided that he wasn’t having this. He reached for it again, answering and putting the device at his ear. ‘’Fuck you, I’m sleeping.’’ He grumbled. He was about to hang up again, when he heard the very familiar laugh of his best friend. ‘’Love you too, Maxy.’’ Daniel said happily.</p><p>Max let out another groan, but did not end the call, instead looking over at the clock with a bit of a frown. ‘’Aren’t you supposed to be asleep? It’s the middle of the night…’’ He mumbled, stifling a yawn himself as he curled up a little more underneath the soft duvet. Daniel hummed a little in return. ‘’I mean, yeah. But I heard through the grapevine that my best friend did some kinky stuff not too long ago and I needed to make sure that he’s okay because I love him. So…are you?’’ He’d normally circle around the point a little longer, but he was tired himself and he knew Max, so Dan decided that there wasn’t any point in doing that now.</p><p>Max was quiet for a moment. ‘’I….How do you know about that…?’’ He asked quietly, suddenly wide awake. When he woke up, he had considered for a moment that everything that had happened an hour or two earlier had been nothing but a very hot dream, but the ache in his knees and jaw, and the soreness of his ass told him otherwise. ‘’Did Charles tell you? That fucking asshole. Did he just come here so that he could say that he fucked me?’’ Max was very clearly getting worked up about this, and instead of the vulnerability that Daniel had feared, it was anger that the Dutchman showed.</p><p>‘’Woooow, calm down Maxy.’’ The Aussie told his friend. ‘’Deep breaths, in one, two, and out. I can explain what happened.’’ He assured Max. Max took a couple of deep breaths, calming himself down enough to at least listen to what Dan had to say. ‘’Charles called me because he was freaking out a bit and couldn’t actually believe what he had done.’’ He informed the Dutchman. ‘’He didn’t call me to brag or anything, he just wanted some advice is all.’’ Dan cleared his throat then and got a little more comfortable.</p><p>‘’But he did tell me what exactly happened over there, and so I decided that it’d probably be best to call you and check on you, because I know how needy you can get after sex and I want to make sure my Maxy is okay.’’ Max huffed at that, still a little annoyed at the fact Charles just told someone after barely having left. ‘’I’m fine.’’ He told Daniel decidedly. ‘’I just think that it’s a fucking dick move to just leave immediately after you fuck someone like that. The least he could’ve done is stayed until I woke up and made me some coffee or whatever. God, he’s such an asshole.’’</p><p>Daniel couldn’t help but chuckle a little at Max’s anger and shook his head on the boy. ‘’You are both such idiots.’’ He told the Dutchman. ‘’I think I’ve pretty much figured out what the problem is here.’’ He added to Max, who rolled his eyes. ‘’Oh please enlighten me Dan. I can’t wait to hear all of your infinite wisdom.’’ He told the Aussie.</p><p>‘’Well…there’s no need to get cheeky with me, mate.’’ Daniel replied, before he said what actually planned on doing. ‘’The problem here is that you and Charles are pretty much exactly the same. You both have the biggest crushes on each other, but you refuse to actually accept that and act on it, because you’re supposedly scared of how it’s perceived or whatever. You’re just both competitive little bastards who want to beat each other more than they actually want love. And that’s a problem.’’ </p><p>Max let out a long sigh at that. He wasn’t going to deny that it was at least a little bit true, but it didn’t feel wholly right either. ‘’That’s just too easy, Dan. Two teammates can’t be dating. It’s too weird. I just…It’s a crush. It will pass. I’m first in the championship and that’s what I should be focusing on right now. Not whether I actually want to date Charles or not…’’</p><p>‘’Fine, fine. It’s your decision, Max. As long as you know that I think you’re both acting like morons.’’ Daniel replied, making Max chuckle a little in response. ‘’And how is that any different from normal?’’ He asked the Aussie, who started laughing, too. They talked for a little bit longer after that, after which Max let Daniel go so that the Australian could go back to sleep.</p><p>He went to take a long shower after that, washing all the sweat and filth off his body, and was in the process of putting new bedlinen on when his phone started buzzing again with a message. Charles. ‘I borrowed a shirt from you. Mine was all sweaty from running. Can I come bring it back tomorrow?’ The message read. Max’s chest felt a little tight as he read the message. He had to sit down on the bed to think about it, and chewed on his bottom lip a little as he considered what to reply.</p><p>Should he really have Charles over again? Part of him was terrified that he wouldn’t be able to control himself from wanting to get it on with the Monegasque again, but another part of him was releasing all kinds of butterflies in his stomach. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. Maybe they could just talk a little…and make out…and fuck…Oh god. He really shouldn’t be having this thoughts. He should be getting over them. Maybe he could use tomorrow to just talk to Charles and make some arrangement that neither of them would ever act on or mention what had happened ever again.</p><p>He finally wrote back ‘Yeah, sure. Wanna come for lunch?’ and just sat on his bed for a little while as he waited for a reply. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and he told himself out loud to stop acting like a high school girl with a crush on the handsomest boy in school. It only got worse when he heard Charles’ notification sound though, and bit his lip as he read the text. ‘Sure! I’ll be there tomorrow at 2. See you then! (:’</p><p>Oh god. This was actually happening. Charles was coming over for lunch. Fuck, why didn’t he think this through? What were they going to eat? What was he going to wear? What did that fucking emoji at the end of Charles’ text mean? Somehow, this was making Max more nervous than a Grand Prix did, and at the same time, he couldn’t wait for tomorrow to arrive.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Lunch</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Back again! I think I'm going to try and stick with this uploading every other day thing. It takes a lot less out of my day/mental wellbeing. Still, I can't leave my boys alone for too long before I want to write more &lt;3</p><p>As always, thank you for reading and feel free to leave a comment if you enjoy the chapter!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Max had been stressing the entire rest of the day after getting Charles’ text. He stressed over an outfit, over what to make for lunch, even whether this meant Charles was planning on hooking up with him again. It was all incredibly stressful, and he almost couldn’t sleep that night because of all the thoughts going through his head. Thankfully, memories from earlier that day could help with that and sent Max straight to sleep…</p><p>In the morning, he spent hours cleaning up, making everything look nice and tidy, before he went to take care of himself. He had gone out the day before to get himself some fancy shampoo and body wash, the exact ones that Daniel had suggested, and made sure to scrub himself extra good so that he would be at his best for when Charles came over. He had chosen a casual outfit, just a black button-down and some jeans, and it was only when he was doing his hair when he really realized what was happening, and how ridiculous he was acting.</p><p>This wasn’t a date. This wasn’t a lunch to try and seduce Charles. This was to make sure that something like the day before never happened again. So…why then did he desperately want it to. Fucking Daniel. Putting thoughts in his head of dating Charles and being together and waking up next to the Monegasque. Ugh, he wanted it so bad that it hurt a little. He finally finished getting his hair to look the way he wanted it to and then made his way to the kitchen, to finish up the white pasta that he was making for lunch. It wasn’t even close to being in Max’s favourite meal list, but Charles the health freak lived for it, so…he made it anyway.</p><p>He had only just finished putting the sauce together when he heard the doorbell ringing. Deep breaths, Max. Deep breaths. This was fine. It was going to be fine. All you need to do is make sure you both understand this can’t become a regular thing. He turned the stove down to the lowest possible fire and made his way to the door then, opening it with a smile. He was about to say hi, but his breathing stopped for a moment when he laid eyes on Charles and, for a moment, Max couldn’t help but feel resentment at the Monegasque just being so irresistibly gorgeous.</p><p>He was wearing nothing special, just a pair of black jeans and a white sweater, but it were the glasses that really did it for Max. Charles looked so good, so cute, so…adorable, really, and it was hard to wrap his head around the fact this this was the same guy that had fucked him so mercilessly the day before. ‘’You look…w-wow…’’ He finally stammered, internally already telling himself off for being such an idiot again. ‘’Come in, please.’’ He quickly added, stepping aside so that Charles could walk inside.</p><p>The Monegasque was chuckling a little as he did, and Max blushed slightly, since it was obviously because of him being an idiot. Charles was carrying a little bag, and showed it to Max after the Dutchman had closed the door behind him. ‘’Got your shirt here.’’ He said happily, putting it down on the side table in the hallway. Charles started to look a little nervous then, and it became clear why as he continued to speak. ‘’So…I’m sorry for just leaving yesterday. I…it just didn’t really seem appropriate to stay, you know.’’ He told Max, who smiled softly in return. </p><p>‘’Yeah…’’ He said quietly. It felt a little awkward to have this conversation just standing in the hallway, and so Max gestured towards the kitchen. ‘’Uhm, I made us some pasta. Do you want to talk more while we eat?’’ He suggested. Charles breathed in through his nose then to smell the food and hummed softly. ‘’Smells good actually.’’ He noted with a pleased looking smile. ‘’Yes, of course. After you.’’ He told Max. The Dutchman nodded and went ahead. As he turned, he could just see Charles checking out his ass in the corner of his eye, and he had to close his eyes for a moment. Don’t get turned on now. You can do this, Max.</p><p>He took Charles along to the kitchen and had the man sit down at the table while he went to check on the pasta. He was even surprising himself a little with how well it was coming together if he was honest. ‘’Would you like something to drink?’’ He asked Charles, who just hummed softly. He seemed to be interrupted in his thoughts a little, but managed to get his cool back quickly enough. ‘’Just some water please, thanks.’’ He said with a smile that made Max feel weak at the knees. This fucking asshole just couldn’t stop being hot for one minute.</p><p>Max got them both a glass of water then and placed them on the table, before he started serving out the pasta. ‘’This is one of your favourites, right?’’ He asked, his voice sounding slightly hopeful. Apparently, Charles caught on, because he chuckled a little before he answered. ‘’Yes it is, don’t worry.’’ He told Max, again with that goddamn smile of his. It was absolutely infuriating. They started eating then, and Max had almost made it through his lunch before Charles brought the topic back to the elephant in the room.</p><p>‘’Can we talk about what happened yesterday now…?’’ He asked then, seemingly a little hesitant. Max figured that that was probably Daniel’s doing, warning Charles about how he was super fragile and needy and whatnot. Ugh. That was really not how he wanted Charles to see him. At least…not outside of the bedroom. So, he decided to face it head on. ‘’Y-Yeah, sure. What exactly did you want to discuss?’’ He asked the Monegasque, putting on his best smile as he looked up from his food and into Charles’ eyes. Those beautiful, deep green eyes. They seemed to be even bigger because of the glasses, and Max could barely stop himself from leaning over the table to kiss the Monegasque right then and there.</p><p>‘’I just wanted to talk about how it happened and how to…deal with it in the future.’’ Charles said. It made Max hum a little, and he sat back in his chair as he looked at the Monegasque with a bit of a frown on his face. ‘’Okay…’’ He said, unsure where this was going. ‘’Go on.’’ Charles sighed a little then, and Max figured that this was probably as hard for Charles as it was for him. </p><p>‘’Yesterday was a mistake and something that we should do again.’’ Charles said, before he noticed his own mistake. ‘’Uh, should not do again, of course…’’ He said, laughing a little sheepishly as he pushed a hand through his hair. Max’s face fell a little. He agreed completely of course, they couldn’t, but it was a little disappointing that now he didn’t actually know if Charles wanted to do it again in the first place. He thought about it for a moment, before his curiosity finally got the better of him. </p><p>‘’Do you want to do it again though…?’’ Max asked quietly, swallowing nervously as he stared at Charles and waited for an answer. The Monegasque took a deep breath then, closing his eyes for a moment before he opened them again to stare straight into Max’s, who could swear that they looked darker, almost hungry. ‘’I do.’’ Charles finally said, his voice sounding quieter, but exactly as confident as it had the day before, and it made Max feel weak.</p><p>Max tried to find the words to say something, anything, but all words seemed to escape him as Charles stared straight into his soul. In the end, he just couldn’t take it anymore and got up, starting to clear the table and rinsing their plates in the sink. He cleared his throat a little then, and was about to finally say something in response, when he suddenly felt two hands on his hips and Charles incredibly close behind him. ‘’You didn’t say whether you want it again too, Maxy.’’ He whispered into the Dutchman’s ear.</p><p>Max nearly dropped the plate he was holding and had to hold onto the sink a little to keep his legs from just giving out completely. He hadn’t even heard Charles get up, was too far into his own head to really notice anything around him. His breath was shaky as Charles held his hips, and Max had to bite his lip a little to keep himself from letting out a small moan as the Monegasque whispered into his ear. Finally, he nodded gently, swallowing thickly as he started to lean slightly against Charles. ‘’Tell me that you want it.’’ The man whispered into Max’s ear then, and the Dutchman did not manage to hold back the little whimper that escaped him then.</p><p>‘’God, Charles…please.’’ Max said quietly, and he gasped a little when he felt a hand move underneath the front of his shirt, before it moved down and undid his pants. ‘’As you wish, Maxy.’’ Charles whispered into the Dutchman’s ear then, and Max was pretty sure he could hear the smirk in the man’s words. He didn’t care though, all he could think about at that moment was how much he wanted a repeat of the day before with Charles.</p><p>Before he knew it, Max had been turned around, and Charles’ lips were on his as he was pushed back against the counter. He moaned against the Monegasque’s lips as they made out, already so desperate for him. He absolutely loved the way Charles was looking and what he was wearing, but really, he wanted him out of it even more than he loved to see him in it. He started pulling at the man’s sweater then, and Charles hummed softly as he pulled away, taking his glasses off and putting them aside on the table. ‘’Calm down, you’ll get what you deserve.’’ He said when he turned back with a smirk. ‘’Follow me.’’ He added, before he went to the bedroom, Max following only a step behind.</p><p>*****</p><p>Max had his eyes closed, his chest heaving as his body slowly returned to a state of normality after going at it again with Charles. It had been a little less rough than the day before, with Charles fucking him more out of a sense of want than anger. Still, they had both loved it before, and so there were hints of it still. Charles had just finished cleaning him up again, and Max was listening for the sounds of the Monegasque getting dressed again to leave. What he did not expect, was for the bed to suddenly dip again, and even less expected was the kiss on his cheek that followed it. </p><p>‘’You alright, Maxy?’’ Charles asked then, apparently sticking with this annoyingly cute little nickname that Max was pretty sure he’d just taken from Daniel. The Dutchman finally opened his eyes when he was asked a question, and turned his head slightly so that he could look at Charles. The Monegasque still looked absolutely breath-taking. His hair was an absolute mess, but really, it just looked charming. He was naked, and for some reason still above the duvet, even though it was pretty chilly in Max’s bedroom, but the Dutchman liked it that way.</p><p>But best of all was the fond little smile he wore on his face as he looked at Max, and it made the Dutchman let out a happy sigh as he leaned over and kissed Charles. ‘’I’m okay.’’ He said quietly as he pulled away. He could see the bit of shock on Charles’ face at the kiss though, and he quickly bit this lip. It was different when they weren’t about to have sex, apparently. ‘’Did…Should I not have done that…?’’ He asked quietly.</p><p>Charles quickly got his composure back and reached out to hold and gently caress Max’s hand. ‘’No, it’s okay. You just scared me for a moment is all. Or surprised is a better word.’’ He said, and Max felt like the Monegasque’s accent was somehow a little thicker after sex. He let out a bit of a sigh then, and placed a small kiss on the Dutchman’s hand. ‘’We should talk about this though, Max.’’ He added, and Max suddenly had a terrible, sinking feeling that he was being broken up with. Even though they weren’t dating. It was weird. Thankfully though, Charles’ next words got rid of that feeling very, very quickly.</p><p>‘’I would really like to keep doing this, Max.’’ Charles said, that same fond smile back on his face as he gently traced his fingers up and down over the Dutchman’s arm. Max’s breathing stopped once again as he processed what Charles was saying. ‘’Are you…Do you mean…?’’ He said, unsure really of what he wanted to ask. Charles’ smile fell a little then, and he was quick to try and explain. ‘’I don’t mean dating…’’ He told Max with an almost apologetic look. ‘’I mean, I like you. And I think that you like me too, but…it just can’t work. And you know that, too.’’ </p><p>Max nodded softly then, and swallowed thickly as he continued to stare at Charles. ‘’I know…’’ He said quietly. ‘’But what do you mean then?’’ He added. Charles hummed softly and moved closer to Max, putting his hands down on either side of his head as he leaned in and kissed the Dutchman again. ‘’What I mean is that when I feel like it, and you feel like it, we can do what we did just now, because that was amazing.’’ He said, before he just started kissing Max again.</p><p>Max killed back for a moment, before he put his hands on Charles’ shoulders and pushed him away a little. ‘’Are you sure that’s a good idea, Charles…?’’ He asked quietly. ‘’I mean if we already have feelings for each other then…’’ Charles just shrugged a little in response and placed a kiss on Max’s forehead. ‘’You casually fuck with Dan, too. And, if I’m honest…I’m not sure I can keep my hands off of you now that I’ve had a taste.’’ He licked his lips then, and all of Max’s worries at least temporarily left his thoughts as he looked at that. ‘’I…okay.’’ He said quietly, making Charles grin.</p><p>The Monegasque kissed Max one last time, before he laid down next to the Dutchman and finally got underneath the duvet, before he pulled him into his arms. He chuckled a little at the look Max gave him then and shrugged again. ‘’Cuddling’s nice. And I intend to take full advantage of you being a little needy after sex, Maxy.’’ He said with a wink, before he relaxed completely and let his eyes fall shut for a moment. </p><p>It was then, in Charles’ arms, that Max really started to worry. He didn’t know if it was the sex talking, but he felt like he realized that his feelings for the man were starting to get stronger with each passing moment. This really was all heading into the wrong direction, and while Max knew that there was absolutely no way in hell he would be able to resist Charles when the man wanted to get it on, it would send them down a rabbit hole that would most likely end very, very badly.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Mon nounours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry I didn't update guys! I just needed to step away for a couple of days to not get burned out on writing. Back now with a new chapter though. Hope you enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Max’s worry started to turn into panic the longer he was this close to the man he was falling for, and the longer he remained in Charles’ way too comfortable arms. He was starting to consider pulling away and politely asking Charles to leave because this was confusing his head and his heart way too much, when he had a bit of a shocking realization as he looked up at the Monegasque. Charles’ eyes were closed, his breathing was slow and even, and even his grip around Max had softened a bit. Charles Leclerc was asleep. In his bed. After sex. None of this was remotely okay, not even with the new arrangement that they apparently had now.</p><p>Still though, there was no chance Max was able to resist Charles looking so peaceful and gorgeous and just…angelic, really. He gently put a hand on the Monegasque’s neck and caressed his jawline with his thumb as he smiled fondly at him. Charles apparently still looked incredible even when he was asleep, and it was just so unfair that even when he wasn’t awake he was still doing his best to make Max fall hopelessly in love with him. He stayed like that for a little while, just watching Charles sleep and cuddling with him, something the man seemed to enjoy a lot going by the way he held on a little tighter every time Max threatened to move away the slightest bit.</p><p>In the end, Max finally gave in to Charles. He didn’t want to ruin the man’s nap, and it wasn’t a punishment to have to cuddle with and look at Charles either… After about an hour, Max finally placed a kiss on Charles’ cheek to try and wake him up, and rubbed the Monegasque’s shoulder a little. ‘’Charles.’’ He said quietly. ‘’Wake up.’’ He added, making sure to stay nice and gentle. A grumpy Charles wouldn’t be great for either of them. The Monegasque started to stir a little at that, and blinked his eyes open. He tightened his grip around Max a little as a reflex and groaned as he was brought out of his slumber.</p><p>‘’Maxy, waking me up is rude.’’ Charles mumbled then, removing one of his hands from Max’s waist so that he could rub at his eyes. His accent was incredibly thick after sleeping, and Max instantly shivered when he heard it. God, that was sexy. Charles noticed the shiver, but didn’t really connect the dots. He just pulled up the duvet a bit higher. ‘’Are you cold, mon nounours?’’ He asked, rubbing Max’s back a little as they laid there together. ‘’No, I’m fine. It’s just….nothing.’’ Max said, giving Charles what he hoped was a reassuring smile. He ignored the French for the time being, afraid as he was that the translation would only spur on the butterflies already haunting his stomach.</p><p>Charles just hummed in return and appeared to drop the subject. He stretched himself out after a moment and glanced over at the clock on the wall, seeing that he had slept for about an hour. ‘’Oh, that was quite a nap.’’ He said and chuckled a little to himself, as he started to gently play with Max’s hair with the Dutchman cuddled against his side. ‘’Do you mind if I take a shower, Maxy?’’ He asked quietly, glancing down at the man. Max had pretty much lost his entire train of thought as Charles touched his hair, but the question brought him back down to earth. ‘’Uhm, yeah sure.’’ He said and gave the Monegasque a smile as he looked up. ‘’I’ll change the sheets and clean up in the kitchen.’’</p><p>Charles nodded softly and placed a kiss upon Max’s head, before he finally stepped out of bed. He was still completely naked, and Max had to avert his eyes a little to stop himself from getting hard and turned on all over again. He distracted himself by getting out of bed as well and quickly changed the bedsheets, putting nice, fresh ones on to replace the ones that had gotten a bit too dirty for his liking. He got dressed after that, putting on a loose fitting shirt in addition to a pair of sweatpants. He didn’t have to dress up for Charles anymore after they’d already had sex, and he wasn’t really planning on it either.</p><p>He was about halfway through getting dressed when he heard Charles starting to sing in the shower and couldn’t help but laugh. It didn’t sound great to say the least, but Max could once again feel butterflies in his stomach, because it was just so incredibly cute. Still…that feeling worried him. A lot. He quickly finished getting dressed and headed back out to the kitchen, cleaning up after them and putting everything in the dishwasher to be dealt with later.</p><p>He finally found himself on the couch, texting Daniel about how they HAD to talk later as soon as Charles had actually left his apartment. The Monegasque in question returned soon after that, and Max really could not believe his eyes. Instead of putting his own fancy looking clothes back on, Charles, looking incredibly cute with his damp, fluffy hair, had put on pretty much the same outfit as Max. The only problem was, they actually were Max’s clothes. He watched as Charles put the glasses he had apparently retrieved from the kitchen back on and sat himself down on the couch next to the Dutchman with a pleased looking smile.</p><p>‘’You’re…those are my clothes…’’ Max said, a little confused, to which Charles just chuckled a little. ‘’Yeah, but I mean, it’s not like I have any clothes over here and I wanted something comfortable and we’re the same size and I wanted to hang out some more so…it made sense to me.’’ He said and shrugged a little. Max couldn’t help the confused look that came onto his face, which appeared to shake Charles’ confidence a little. ‘’Did you…not?’’ The Monegasque asked, looking a little uncomfortable all of a sudden.</p><p>‘’No!’’ Max said quietly, before correcting himself. ‘’I mean. I did not want to not hang out some more…’’ He said, before realizing that was really confusing too. ‘’I would really like to spend some more time with you.’’ He finally decided, letting out a bit of a sigh at his brain being such a dick to him right now. Charles just started to chuckle again, his confidence apparently restored if his relaxed demeanour was anything to go by. He hummed a little then and glanced at the tv, before looking back at Max. ‘’How do a movie and then ordering in some dinner sound to you?’’ He asked curiously.</p><p>Obviously, Max was not against this in the slightest, and so they spend a couple of hours watching superhero movies, after which the bickering about what to eat started. Max really wanted some pizza, whereas Charles did not think that was anywhere near close to healthy enough. In the end, both got what they wanted. Max got himself the kind of pizza that meant his trainer wouldn’t immediately kill him on sight and Charles ordered the kind of salad that Max wouldn’t even think of touching in the slightest.</p><p>They finished their dinner at about nine, and the March sun had by now gone down over Monaco. After cleaning up after himself, Charles then finally decided that it was time to leave and go home. He changed back into the clothes he’d come over in and left after that, but not before giving Max a big, tight hug. ‘’I’ll see you soon.’’ He told the Dutchman with a wink, before he pulled the door closed shut behind himself.</p><p>As soon as the door had closed behind Charles, Max walked to the couch, laid down on his back, grabbed a pillow, put it over his face and screamed into it as loudly as he possibly could. What the actual fuck had just happened? This wasn’t just a nice, relaxed fuck and go. Charles had stayed for the entire rest of the day. They had cuddled. They had watched a movie together. They had had dinner. It was too much, it was insane, it was way beyond okay, and yet it was everything Max could possibly want.</p><p>He had just felt so good in Charles’ arms. So relaxed, so comfortable, so safe. The desire to be together with the Monegasque, really together as a couple, only grew stronger the more that they spent in each other’s company. Really, Max didn’t even really know anymore why he had disliked Charles so much. If anything, the passion and fire within him was what was attracting him most now.</p><p>In the end, after a little while of wallowing in self-pity and just generally feeling bad about everything and cursing the world for not just allowing him to date Charles if he so wanted, he decided that he needed to call Daniel and have the man probably tell him off for acting like a brat and a dumb idiot. To do that though, he figured he needed to be a little more comfortable, as well as give Dan some time to wake up. So he texted his friend, asking whether he could call him, before he got ready for the night.</p><p>Max went and turned all the lights off, brushed his teeth, undressed, and finally crawled into bed, where he saw that he already had a missed call from his best friend. Smiling a little to himself, he instantly called back, putting the call on speaker so he wouldn’t have to actually hold his phone the entire time. Dan almost instantly answered the call, sounding please to talk to his best friend. ‘’Morning, Maxy. You calling to rant about your sexy French boyfriend again?’’ He asked, chuckling a little already.</p><p>‘’Morning Dan.’’ Max replied. He could never really figure out the whole time zone and time difference thing, but Daniel didn’t sound like Max had just woke him up, so that was a positive at least. ‘’I uhm…I kinda maybe actually do a little bit…?’’ He had to admit with a long, laboured sigh. ‘’And he’s not French! He’s Monegasque! Totally different thing.’’ He added in a bit of a huff. Dan just let out an amused hum at that, before he decided to tease Max anyway. ‘’Oh okay. I’m sure that Charlie is very happy he’s got his boyfriend looking out for his best interests.’’</p><p>Max let out another long groan at that and put his bicep over his eyes to try and disappear a little. ‘’I hate you.’’ He grumbled, making the Aussie laugh. ‘’Nah, you love me. And I love you. Now tell me what’s on your mind, Maxy. I’m all ears.’’ Max just sighed a little then and bit his lip, unsure of how to even start to explain what the hell had happened that day. In the end, he figured it’d be best to really just get it all out in one long go.</p><p>‘’So you know he came over to bring me my shirt back and I made us lunch so we could talk and we started doing that, but things got really fucking heated really quickly then and before I knew it he was fucking me again and it was so, so good Dan. Like…someone that pretty isn’t supposed to be that good of a fuck, but my god, he is. He just, he does things to me that just transport me somewhere else and he makes me feel so…’’ Max rambled on, but Dan cleared his throat then to interrupt him. ‘’Uhm, Maxy, while I appreciate the jerk off material, I think you were in the middle of freaking out, and not just telling me about how incredible sex with Charlie is.’’</p><p>A deep red blush crept its way onto Max’s face then, and he felt very happy that Dan couldn’t actually see him in that moment. He too cleared his throat, trying to get the memories of sex with Charles out of his head, before he finally continued again. ‘’Uhm…so after we did it, we cuddled for a while and Charles asked me if I wanted to keep doing this…like the whole fuckbuddy thing. And then after I agreed he kissed me and held me and then just fell asleep. And he slept. For about an hour. With me in his arms. And I wanted to be not creepy and move but he had his arms around me and kept holding me tighter and in the end it just felt too nice to stop…’’ Max sighed longingly then, really just wanting to be back in Charles’ arms right now before bed if he had any say about it.</p><p>‘’And then he went to shower when he woke up while I cleaned up after us. And then he had the audacity to put on some of my clothes and came to the couch to watch a movie and have dinner with me. And he only left just now…’’ Max finally ended. ‘’I’m so fucked, aren’t I?’’ Dan had been silent as Max talked, but couldn’t help the burst of laughter that escaped him at Max’s final sentence. ‘’Yes, Maxy. From the sound of it, you have been well and truly fucked.’’ He teased with a giant grin on his face.</p><p>‘’No but really….I think you are both just desperate to start dating each other. The whole fuckbuddy thing isn’t going to work. It never works out for anyone and it won’t for you either. Mark my words. You two will be dating before the season ends. Maybe in secret, maybe not, but you will be.’’ Daniel told Max. The Dutchman once again felt butterflies even at the mention of dating Charles at all, and he stomped his own stomach a little in an attempt to try and get rid of them. ‘’No but Dan, it just can’t work…’’ He said and sighed deeply again. ‘’I…I want it to, but…it can’t. Maybe the fuckbuddy thing will actually work for us. Maybe it’ll just end up being a way for us both to express our feelings and frustrations and then we can just mostly move on afterwards…’’ He said, but he didn’t even really believe himself.</p><p>‘’You can think that if it helps you sleep at night, Maxy…’’ Daniel finally replied after thinking it over for a second. ‘’I just don’t want to see you get your heart broken again and again and again. I love you too much to let that happen.’’ Max started to pout a little, mostly at himself, because of course Dan was right. Stupid, annoyingly wise Dan. ‘’I’m not gonna stop it, Daniel.’’ He finally told the man quietly. ‘’I…if this is my only chance of being close with Charles, then I’m going to take it, no matter if it hurts me after.’’ He swallowed thickly then, closing his eyes for a second as he waited for an answer. Thankfully, Daniel was just the best friend in the entire world.</p><p>‘’Alright.’’ The Aussie just replied in response to Max. ‘’You know where to find me and you know I’m always here for you. I don’t agree with what you’re doing, but I’m not about to say no to supporting my best friend if and when he needs me.’’</p><p>That reassurance made Max let out a relieved breath that he hadn’t realized he was holding in. ‘’Thank you, Dan. Just…thank you. You’re the best friend I could wish for.’’ He told the Aussie, who finally laughed in response. ‘’Finally he’s figured it out!’’ He said happily. ‘’Well, you can repay me with a blowjob whenever we see each other again.’’ He added, chuckling happily to himself as they went and turned their conversation towards less heavy weighing subjects. They talked for a little while longer, with Max letting Daniel talk about his own escapades over in Australia for a while too, before Dan let Max go for the night.</p><p>Max put his phone away after ending the call and attempted to get comfortable. He turned on his side, and, taking a deep breath, found that even his pillow smelled a little of Charles after the man had slept on it. When he finally fell asleep, he had his head down on another pillow, while hugging the one the Monegasque had slept on nice and tight as he dreamt of maybe spending a life with the man he was falling hopelessly in love with.</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. The Interview</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I didn't think I'd actually post today, but it all went so smoothly that I finished in time! So you're welcome! :p</p><p>Love you all! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Max and Charles spent a lot of time together leading up to the Bahrain Grand Prix two weeks later. Much to Max’s confusion, Charles continued to move the boundaries. They didn’t just fuck, they did so much more. They watched a ton of movies, they showered together, Charles even made dinner a couple of times and on the last day they got to be together before they’d have to head over to the Middle East, Charles suddenly asked whether he could stay the night after they had cleaned up after themselves. Not one to deny anything that the Monegasque asked, especially after getting fucked like that again, Max almost immediately agreed, and had spent the night cuddled close to Charles’ side.</p><p>Once they finally got to Bahrain though, everything changed. Charles had already held off on flying together, apparently because they ‘shouldn’t be seen together too much’ and he was acting like they hadn’t spent 2 weeks together as soon as they actually arrived at the track. He was distant, short with Max whenever the Dutchman tried to strike up a conversation, and it was immensely confusing Max. They spent the Thursday at the track doing all kinds of media and sponsor things, and Max was exhausted once he finally got back to his hotel room. He showered and laid down naked on the bed, just because he could. He checked his phone again then, to find that he had a bunch of texts from Daniel.</p><p>[20:21] Dude, have you read the interview Charles did with Motorsport?<br/>[20:24] Okay actually maybe you shouldn’t.<br/>[20:26] Okay definitely don’t. Trust me on this one.</p><p>Those definitely were not the kind of texts that would stop Max Verstappen from doing anything. Really, all it did was point him towards the thing he apparently absolutely had to read. He left Daniel on read and instantly went to the website, scrolling through the page until he finally found the article he was looking for. The fact that the title was: ‘Charles Leclerc On His Teammate, And How He Plans To Win The Championship’ wasn’t really that encouraging to begin with, and Max’s heart only sank as he started to read the article itself. </p><p>It was awful. Charles was discussing all of their past, with crashes and arguments, and seemed to paint a terrible picture of Max’s mental state. How he was quick to anger, and didn’t have the temperament or the patience to become a world champion. How he was sure that as the season went on, Max just wouldn’t be able to be mentally stable enough to stay in the lead. Max was getting angrier and angrier as he read on, until finally, he could almost feel his heart shattering in his chest.</p><p>‘’So when you say you want to get into Max’s head, what exactly do you mean by that?’’<br/>CL: I mean that I have to keep the pressure on him, in any way necessary. I will have to try and get him to lose his focus, to lose his edge, anything I can do to help me become world champion.</p><p>Of course, Max instantly knew what Charles was referring to there. So this was really all a game for Charles? He wasn’t actually into Max, or had any real, honest feelings for him? All of this way really just to get into his head, to make sure he wouldn’t be as sharp when it came to battling him on track. Max blinked a few times as he stopped reading then, and put his phone aside. He could hear it buzzing, probably Daniel checking on him after leaving him on read, but he didn’t respond. He blinked a few times, his eyes tearing up a little as he did. ‘’No. Fuck you, Verstappen.’’ He said out loud to himself as he took a few deep breaths. ‘’You are not crying over that asshole. Fuck him. Fuck him. Fuck him.’’ He turned around then, angrily stomping his pillow a few times before finally just throwing it as hard at the wall as he possibly could. </p><p>He was angry. He was heartbroken, he was sad, he was devastated, but above all, he was angry. How dare Charles use him like this. How dare he play with him like this. How fucking dare he break his heart like this. The room was quiet aside from Max’s heavy, angry breathing, until he suddenly heard laughter in the hallway. Very familiar, happy laughter. Charles. Of course. Their rooms were on the same floor, very close to each other, so of course this was just the moment the Monegasque would walk by, laughing happily, probably thinking about how it was so funny that he was breaking Max’s heart. He decided in that moment that he was going to confront Charles, because this was absolutely unacceptable.</p><p>Max dug into his suitcase, grabbing the first pair of sweatpants and the first workout shirt he could find. He angrily put them on, getting his shirt the wrong way around on the first try in the process, before he slipped his phone and room key into his pocket and made his way after Charles. He could just see the door fall shut ahead of him, and so he pretty much ran over, banging loudly on the door. He was about to yell when he realized that there were a lot of other people in this hotel, and so he elected to stay quiet, at least until he was actually inside the room.</p><p>The door was opened by a very confused looking Charles a few moments later, and Max didn’t even give him time to say something before he was pushing his way past the Monegasque, slamming the door shut behind him. ‘’What the fuck is wrong with you?!’’ He yelled in Charles’ face as the man just stared at him. ‘’Is this just a joke to you?! Is the time we spent together just a fucking game?! How could you say that?! How could you do this to me?!’’ He pushed Charles out of anger then, and the Monegasque groaned a little as his back hit the wall. </p><p>‘’You are sick.’’ Max continued through gritted teeth, not even giving Charles a moment to respond. Really, he didn’t even care. Charles had said enough in his interview, and he wasn’t there to hear some weak excuse. He was just there to be angry. He was sure he looked absolutely furious, but that still didn’t even come close to the way he felt inside. He felt so utterly betrayed by the man he had finally accepted he loved, and he had never felt this way before. ‘’If you ever come fucking near me again I will send you into the hospital.’’ He warned the Monegasque, before he opened the door again and walked outside, pretty much running back to his own room without so much as even looking back at Charles.</p><p>He opened the door to his own room and sank down against it as he closed it behind himself. That was when the tears finally came. He loved Charles. He could really, finally admit that he loved Charles and as soon as he stopped denying it, this happened. His heart was broken. He silently cried for a little while, before even Max realized that this was very much not the time to be alone. He took out his phone and finally texted Daniel back, asking the Aussie on which floor he was and what his room number was, because he really, really needed a friend right now.</p><p>When Daniel almost immediately texted him back about being 2 floors down, Max knew his destination. He just needed to look somewhat presentable for the journey to get there. He slowly pulled himself up from the floor and went into the bathroom, finding out that he looked like an absolute mess. His hair was fucked, his eyes were red and puffy from crying and he looked as white as a ghost. All in all, it wasn’t his best look. He tried to fix himself up as best he could, washed his face with cold water, put some extra product in his hair until finally, he just gave up. He grabbed a Red Bull cap, pulled it as far over his eyes as it would possibly go, and hurried out of the room.</p><p>He took the stairs, rather than the elevator down to Dan’s floor. There was just less of a chance of running into people that way, and he thankfully didn’t run into anyone before he finally found himself at the Aussie’s door. He knocked a few times, before Daniel finally opened up, wearing nothing but the towel around his hips. ‘’Oh…’’ Max just said, completely unable to keep himself from staring at both Daniel’s abs and the very, very low hanging towel. Daniel cleared his throat then, before he just started to chuckle and used a second towel to dry his hair a bit more. ‘’Come on in, Maxy. I was just finishing up.’’ He told the Dutchman, stepping aside so that Max could walk inside.</p><p>That was exactly what Max did. He walked inside and over to Daniel’s bed, sitting down on it with a deep sigh as he waited for the Aussie to join him. Daniel took a minute or so, before he finally walked out of the bathroom and back over to his suitcase, being very, very naked. ‘’Oh god, Dan. Could you put something on, please?’’ Max asked. He couldn’t deny that seeing his very naked, very hot best friend was turning him on a little, but that was absolutely not why he was there. ‘’Yeah, yeah. Not my fault you show up here in the middle of my shower.’’ Dan replied, before he finally finished a fresh pair of boxers from his suitcase and put them on, before he sat down onto the bed next to Max.</p><p>He took one long look at the Dutchman, before he was reaching over and taking him into a big hug, rubbing his back a little. ‘’I take it you read the interview and the talk about it with Charles didn’t go swimmingly?’’ He asked with a bit of a sigh. Max gave a bit of a shrug at first, before he finally started to speak. ‘’It wasn’t really a talk…’’ He said quietly. ‘’I got so angry that I just went to his room and yelled at him and told him to never say another word to me again.’’ He told Daniel, swallowing a little before he continued. ‘’I don’t know why I feel this way, Dan. We weren’t even together, so why does it feel like I’ve been broken up with and my heart is being stomped on?’’ He asked the Aussie, melting into his bear hug of an embrace a little more. It was just so comforting and warm and safe and just…Dan.</p><p>‘’It’s alright, Maxy.’’ Daniel said quietly in return to the Dutchman. He continued to hold him nice and close and rubbed his back to try and make him feel a little better. ‘’Like I told you, you and Charles pretty much were in a relationship.’’ He gently told his best friend. ‘’And this is pretty much like a real break up, too.’’ He added with a bit of a sigh. He placed a soft kiss on Max’s cheek then and pulled away a little to smile at him. ‘’If you want, you can spend the night here. We can just relax together for the rest of the night, and that way you don’t have to be alone.’’</p><p>Max nodded quickly at that and gave Daniel a small smile. ‘’Yeah, thanks Dan.’’ He told the Aussie. ‘’God, I wish I could get black out drunk right now, but I have to drive an F1 car in the morning, so that’s not happening…’’ He said, finally chuckling a little again. ‘’Theeeeere’s my Maxy!’’ Daniel said excitedly, patting the Dutchman’s leg before he got up again. He walked over to the mini fridge then to get them both something to drink, as Max reached out for the tv remote and turned it on. Instantly, the screen jumped to life, with porn. Of course. Max was quick to reduce the volume, and raised an eyebrow at Daniel as the Aussie turned back around to face his friend. ‘’Riiiiiiiight. About that. Those were my plans for the evening, but that’s obviously not happening now.’’ He said and chuckled a little to himself as he threw Max a bottle of water.</p><p>The Dutchman took a big swig of it, before he licked his lips and stared at Daniel. ‘’Why not…?’’ He asked the Aussie then. Daniel very slowly put his bottle of water down on the desk then and looked at Max for a moment, before his lips turned upwards into a smirk. ‘’Are you saying you would like a piece of this, Verstappen?’’ He asked, before he pointed at his groin. Max hummed a little in return and shrugged. ‘’If you’re asking whether I would love it if you could fuck me and help me relax, then yes. Fuck yes.’’ He replied. He got up then, taking his shirt off and walking closer to Daniel.</p><p>As he stepped closer, Max wrapped his arms around the Aussie’s neck and pulled their bodies a little closer together, before he kissed the man deeply. ‘’Will you please fuck me, Dan?’’ He whispered against the man’s lips, knowing very well Dan got off on him asking nicely for what he wanted. As if on cue, he could feel the Aussie growing a little hard in his boxers, and Max almost instantly had his hand down the man’s boxers to help him get all the way there. ‘’Lucky for you, I always come prepared and bring lube.’’ Daniel told Max, before he finally pushed the Dutchman down on the bed with a grin. He pulled down Max’s sweatpants, letting out a pleased hum when he found out that he wasn’t wearing underwear, and gently ran his hands up and down the man’s thighs a few times. ‘’Turn around for me then, Maxy. Let’s have some fun together.’’</p><p>*****</p><p>Max woke up the next morning with Daniel’s arms wrapped snugly around his waist. He felt the pleasant, familiar ache in his ass as he stretched his limbs out a little and yawned. Daniel was spooning him, and he felt the naked Aussie’s early morning excitement against his lower back, but that was definitely not happening again this morning. He stayed like that for a little while. It seemed like Daniel was still asleep, and now that Max’s head wasn’t filled with so much static anymore, he could actually think about what had happened the night before.</p><p>He had to decide how to handle Charles from now on. There was no way that he would ever let the Monegasque anywhere near his personal life ever again, but despite everything, they were still teammates. And that meant that they had certain obligations to perform as a team. He would have to interact with Charles, and he was mainly just hoping that his extensive media training would help him through the times he would have to deal with the man he now had a literal love/hate relationship with. He was finally brought back to the real world when he felt a kiss on the back of his neck and one of Daniel’s hands moving from his waist to his hip, where it gently caressed the skin. ‘’Mornin’ Maxy.’’ The Australian mumbled, and Max couldn’t help but chuckle a little.</p><p>‘’Your accent sounds even heavier in the morning you know.’’ He told his best friend. He slowly turned around in the man’s arms and smiled at him, while Daniel just gave Max a bit of a concerned look. ‘’Are you okay? Ready for today?’’ He asked quietly, always the one concerned for the Dutchman’s wellbeing. Max let out a long, deep sigh and nodded. ‘’Yes.’’ He finally decided. ‘’Whether I am or not, I’ll have to be.’’ Daniel nodded softly in return and gave Max a smile, before he threw the duvet off of them. ‘’Alright then.’’ He said. ‘’Let’s go at it.’’</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Casual</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>New chapter! Couldn't leave you guys hanging too long after the shocker that was chapter 8 :p<br/>This time, we shift to Charlie's perspective &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The two weeks leading up to the Bahrain Grand Prix were at the same time some of the happiest, and some of the hardest of Charles’ entire life. On the one side, he was absolutely loving his time with Max. More than anything he wanted to date and be together with his teammate as a couple, but since he couldn’t, their new arrangement was the closest they could possibly be to it. Still though, Charles desperately wanted more. He spent all the time he possibly could with Max, making easy excuses to stay behind after having sex and talking the Dutchman into spending hours together cuddling, watching movies, having dinner, and finally even spending the night before they had to head over to Bahrain. Max slept in his arms that night, and Charles regretted that he even had to sleep at all, he would’ve much prepared to just watched the man he was falling for the entire night.</p><p>When it was finally time to leave though, Charles knew he had to make a switch. As fond as he was of Max, and as much as he wanted to spend all his hours with him, it was now time to focus on racing again. So he needed to separate himself from the Dutchman. That meant no flying together, no spending time together even when they were not at the track, not even really having any conversations in their downtime. It would only distract him from his job, and he couldn’t afford that in the slightest. As much as he was into Max, he had an equally great desire to become world champion, and he wasn’t about to let an out of hand crush do any damage to those dreams.</p><p>He kept his distance as much as he possibly could from Max on the media day. They had their forced interactions of course, like the press conference and the sponsor obligations, but mostly they did their own thing. He had to approve the release of a couple of stories too, mostly things that he’d been interviewed for in Melbourne, but his mind just started to wander and wasn’t really focused on his work. These things were thoroughly vetted by the team anyway, so really he just signed off on everything and was pleased when he finally was allowed to go back to the hotel for the evening. Max had thankfully already left a little while earlier, so there wouldn’t be any run ins that way.</p><p>Charles was driven back the short ride to the hotel when he got a call from Arthur. His younger brother would be starting his Formula 3 career and hopefully title run at the same track that weekend, and so Arthur wanted to get a bit more insight on the track from his older brother now that he’d actually used the day to do some recon of it. They talked for the entire drive to the hotel, and Charles was laughing happily as he walked upstairs to his room, assuring Arthur that he’d absolutely knock it out of the park. They ended their call pretty much as Charles entered his room, which apparently was right on time, because there was a loud knocking on the door as soon as he had slipped his phone into his pocket.</p><p>Charles felt a little confused as to who would need him at this hour, but given the insistence of the person banging on the door, he opened it anyway. As soon as he did, Max stormed in, slamming the door closed behind him. Charles looked on with wide eyes and was about to take a step back, when Max immediately started to yell in his face “What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Max yelled loudly. “Is this just a joke to you?! Was the time we spent together just a fucking game?! How could you say that?! How could you do this to me?!” Max continued, getting very close to him before he shoved Charles, sending him backwards against the wall.</p><p>A pained groan escaped Charles as he hit the wall, but Max didn’t seem to care much for it. As Charles looked into his eyes, all he saw was anger and pain, and it broke his heart a little to see Max like this. He had no idea what this was about, but Max seemed to be absolutely furious with him. He was about to reply, and opened his mouth to do so, but Max did not give him the chance to. ‘’You are sick.’’ The Dutchman continued through gritted teeth. ‘’If you ever come fucking near me again, I will send you into the hospital.’' Was all that Max ended with, before he turned around and left as quickly as he had showed up to begin with, slamming the door behind him as he left.</p><p>Charles was absolutely dumbfounded. What the actual fuck had just happened? Max had just stormed in like a whirlwind without giving any reason whatsoever, had yelled in his face for a minute, and then just left without any explanation at all. It was incredibly confusing, and Charles’ heart was beating hard in his chest as he sat down on the edge of his bed. His brain tried to find any possible reason for Max’s outburst, but he had no idea what it was. He hadn’t said anything strange during the media day. Nothing about their…arrangement or relationship, and he hadn’t even let anything slip about how he was pretty sure he was falling hard and fast in love with Max.</p><p>Did this mean everything was over? Had Max just sort of broken up with him…? In the end, after considering all that for a little while, Charles did what he always did when he needed to have a good think, he took a long, hot shower. The water relaxed his tired body and helped to slow down his racing mind as well. He pushed his wet hair backwards so that the water wouldn’t drip into his eyes and sighed deeply as he leaned against the tiled wall. ‘’What did I do…?’’ He asked out loud, still feeling incredibly confused. He racked his brain to try and figure out what had happened, when all of a sudden, everything just clicked into place all at once. Oh god. Oh no. Charles, what did you do.</p><p>He suddenly remembered this interview he had given right after the race in Australia. He had been so, so angry with Max, and he remembered going through all of his previous grievances with the Dutchman. But…he didn’t remember it as being too terrible, unless all of his words were taken out of context and twisted by whoever wrote the actual article. He quickly turned off the water then, stepping out of the shower and drying himself. He wrapped a towel around his waist and quickly hurried back to bed, taking the charger out of his phone and quickly going to the Motorsport website to actually read the interview. Fucking hell. He had probably approved it earlier that day without even really taking a look at it…</p><p>The article itself was…bad. It really sounded like Charles was trying to completely tear Max apart, and he couldn’t really recall whether he had actually put it like that or whether his words were being twisted. He kept on reading, until he finally got to the paragraph that he was sure Max had gotten so furious over. </p><p>‘’So when you say you want to get into Max’s head, what exactly do you mean by that?’’<br/>CL: I mean that I have to keep the pressure on him, in any way necessary. I will have to try and get him to lose his focus, to lose his edge, anything I can do to help me become world champion.</p><p>As soon as he finished reading his answer, Charles locked his phone and closed his eyes, before he started cursing quietly at himself. He was sure that Max had read his answer in the context of their new arrangement. He had pretty much said so. The answer was pretty bad just in an objective view, but there was no way that Charles had it meant it in the context that Max thought he did. He had just meant some bullshit like Lewis and Nico tried with each other back in 2016, not that he was going to try and get into Max’s head by fucking and ditching him. How sick did the Dutchman really think he was…</p><p>Charles instantly decided that he had to go over to Max and explain. He finally got up from the bed then and quickly put his clothes back on, before he went over to Max’s room. It was only when he stepped outside of his hotel room that he realized he didn’t actually know what room Max was in. Which…was a problem. He awkwardly retreated back inside and sat down on the bed, where he started calling Max, not wanting to do this over text. He tried about 15 times over a period of half an hour, before he finally gave up. The Dutchman apparently did not want to speak with him, and Charles figured that it really would only be worse if he tried to force this. He instead switched to Daniel, because if there was anyone who could talk to Max for him, it was probably the Australian. </p><p>[22:03] Hey Daniel, have you heard anything from Max? We just had a bit of a fight about the Motorsport interview and I can’t reach him…Could you maybe get him to talk to me…?<br/>[22:17] Daaaaaaanieeeeeeeel, you there?<br/>[22:19] Hello, Earth to Dan? <br/>[22:43] Okay, I guess you went to bed early…see you in the morning…</p><p>None of the texts showed up as read, even though Charles kept checking about once every 20-30 seconds. He finally let out a long, deep sigh and let himself fall backwards onto the bed, where he just stared at the ceiling for a bit. This was exactly what he didn’t want to happen. He tried to keep his distance from Max so that he wouldn’t actually think about the Dutchman all day, and yet his own stupidity was making just that happen. He undressed himself then and crawled into bed, watching some tv to try and take his mind off of things before he finally went to sleep for the night, with rest coming a bit harder than usual.</p><p>When Charles woke up the next morning, the first thing he did was check his phone. He sighed deeply when he still didn’t have any response from Max or Dan, but…it was still early. He dragged himself out of bed and went to freshen up a bit, before he put on his workout clothes and went down to the gym for a bit of an early morning run. He spent an hour on that, before Charles returned to his room, taking another shower and getting dressed for the day, before he finally went to have breakfast in the hotel restaurant. </p><p>He ran into a few guys from his side of the garage there, and sat with them for breakfast, eating his normal selection for racing days, to make sure that he had enough energy to do two practice sessions that day. He was about coming towards the end of his meal, talking through the program for the day with his team, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw two familiar forms entering the room. He glanced over, and saw Max and Daniel walking into the restaurant together, laughing between each other and just looking really happy. Oh. So that’s why neither of them answered…they spent the night together…</p><p>Charles knew both Max and Daniel well enough that he could tell with just a single look at the pair of them. As he watched, his blood started to boil. How fucking dare Daniel do this to him? He was the only person in the entire world who knew how he felt about Max, and as soon as they had a bit of a fight, he just went ahead and started casually fucking him again?! He found that he had clenched his hands into fists as he glanced back down and opened them to let his cutlery fall down on to his plate. ‘’I need to go.’’ He told the others, before he got up. He got a few weird looks from the guys, but he decided to ignore those. He had more important things to do.</p><p>He took a long, deep breath and marched over to the table that Max and Daniel had sat down at. He glanced at the both of them and waited for them to look up before he spoke. He was sure he was looking very angry, his jaw set and the veins in his hands and forearms on full display as he had involuntarily clenched his hands into fists once again. ‘’We need to talk.’’ He said, looking straight at Daniel, who looked a little surprised that he was the one being addressed by Charles. ‘’Uhm…alright.’’ He said, still looking a little confused as he got up. ‘’You’re in charge of my coffee and eggs.’’ He told Max. ‘’You know how I like them, so you’re the one in trouble if it’s wrong.’’ He added with a smile, before he went along with the Monegasque.</p><p>Charles walked them out of the restaurant and to a secluded area just outside, before he turned to Dan and stared at the Australian with fire raging in his eyes. ‘’Seriously, Daniel?! Are you fucking serious?! Max and I have one little fight about nothing and while you know how I feel about him you go and have sex with him again?!’’ He hands were still clenched, and for a split second he genuinely considered punching the Australian in the face, no matter how strong their friendship was. </p><p>Daniel just hummed softly and shrugged a little. ‘’Look, Charlie. Here’s the thing. Yes you told me that you like Max, but that doesn’t really mean anything if you don’t go ahead and lock it down. If you two fight over that Motorsport interview, which…what the fuck, man…then I’m not gonna say no when Max comes to me and wants me to fuck him. I’m gonna say yes. Cause it’s great.’’ He crossed his arms as he looked at the Monegasque and tried to gauge just how angry he was. ‘’What Max and I are doing is casual. Just like what you are or were doing together. There is no rule that says I can’t have fun with him, Charles. You two aren’t exclusive.’’</p><p>Charles had to take a deep breath then and closed his eyes for a second. He was still extremely angry that Daniel had done this, had slept with Max instead of talking to him first, but…he couldn’t deny that he was right. They weren’t exclusive, they couldn’t be, even if it was the only thing that Charles could think about at any moment of every day. He wanted to be together with Max, to call him his boyfriend, to wake up next to him in the morning and kiss him awake. He was only brought out of his own thoughts when he heard Daniel’s voice again, and the Aussie seemed to be waiting for an answer.</p><p>‘’Well, Charles? Do you want to be exclusive with Max or not?’’ Daniel asked again. Charles swallowed thickly then and finally nodded. ‘’Yes…’’ He said. ‘’Yes, I do.’’</p><p>Charles heard a bit of a gasp behind him then, and a familiar voice soon followed. ‘’What did you just say?’’</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Explanations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I keep telling myself that I'll just finish a chapter tomorrow when I'm halfway done, but I can't leave things unfinished, so then I finish it and post it the same day anyway. I have no chill. Like most of my characters :D</p><p>Enjoy! Leave a comment if you like, I love all of them! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As he walked into the hotel restaurant together with Daniel, Max’s eyes were immediately drawn over to Charles, as they always were when the man was around, really. He sent the Monegasque an icy glare, before he continued to walk with the Australian, getting a table for the two of them so they could have some breakfast. He started looking through the menu then and only looked up when he saw someone walking up to their table. Assuming it was the waiter, he looked up with a smile, which immediately fell as soon as he realized that it was Charles coming over to talk to them. Max’s expression went blank as he stared at the Monegasque, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing just how heartbroken he still was.</p><p>However, Max’s expression turned to surprise when Charles suddenly started to talk and he wasn’t the one being addressed. ‘’We need to talk.’’ The Monegasque told Daniel, who seemed as surprised if not more so than Max had been. ‘’Uhm…alright.’’ The Aussie replied, turning to Max as he got up from his chair. ‘’You’re in charge of my coffee and eggs.’’ He told the Dutchman, who rolled his eyes a little with a fond smile on his face. ‘’You know how I like them, so you’re the one in trouble if it’s wrong.’’ He walked off with Charles then, and Max couldn’t really do anything other than just stay behind and wait for Daniel to come back.</p><p>Max was not a very patient person, and so when Daniel took more than 10 minutes to finally return to their table, the Dutchman was getting very, very impatient. He glared a bit at the Aussie when he finally returned and crossed his arms as he stared him down. ‘’What did he want?’’ He demanded instantly, not even really giving Daniel a chance to sit down. ‘’Oh Charlie? He just wanted some advice from a real racing driver cause he’s still so new at all this and he wants to beat this really talented new teammate of his with the big ego.’’ He said and chuckled softly to himself, before he shrugged. ‘’It was about you, obviously. Do you really want to know though?’’ He asked the Dutchman, who hummed in return and started to poke a little at his eggs. ‘’No…’’ He finally decided. He wanted nothing to do with Charles. Not now. Not ever.</p><p>The rest of the weekend was mostly like that. Max did not want to speak with Charles unless he absolutely had to, even though Charles really did try and make some attempts. They were just immediately cut off by the Dutchman strongly enough that eventually, he gave up altogether. What pissed Max off even more was that apparently, this whole situation was getting to him so much that he was behind Charles for the entirety of the weekend, unable to catch up with him in either qualy or the race. It meant that he left Bahrain tied with Charles in the championship, which really only made Max’s already bad mood a lot worse. Charles had gotten exactly what he wanted by playing with his heart, and it just made Max angrier than he had already been.</p><p>He was grumpy and annoyed for days, still unable to believe just how much Charles had betrayed his trust and why he had been so stupid as to not even see through it. It was finally Lando who got through to him and nearly forced Max to come online and play Call of Duty with him in order to relax a little. Max finally agreed, but made sure Lando wasn’t streaming. He had no patience to deal with all of that bullshit as well. They played a couple of battle royale games with moderate success, until Lando finally spoke up out of nowhere after both of them had died. ‘’So how come you never told me you’re fucking both Daniel and Charles? Seems like something I need to know as one of your very best friends.’’</p><p>Having just taken a sip of water, Max nearly choked as Lando’s question came through. He went into a huge coughing fit, before he was finally able to speak again, his voice sounding a bit hoarse. ‘’You…I’m sorry, what?!’’ He asked Lando, who seemed incredibly unbothered by Max’s shocked response. ‘’Yeah. I overheard Charles and Daniel talking about how they were both having casual sex with you. How come you never told me about that? I thought we were closer than this, Max!’’ He seemed genuinely annoyed by Max not telling him about all of this, and the Dutchman just buried his face in his hands in despair.</p><p>‘’You…you can’t just casually say things like that, Lando! You nearly killed me!’’ He finally let out, before he groaned. ‘’Why should I tell you about who I have sex with?’’ He asked the Englishman, who let out an incredulous sound. ‘’I always tell you about the girls I pulled!’’ He told Max, who rolled his eyes. He really did not want to hear about that either. ‘’Let me repeat myself. Why should I tell you about who I have sex with, Lando?’’ Lando was silent for a few moments again, which did not happen a lot, before he finally responded. ‘’Because, because…because that’s what friends do, Max!’’ He finally argued.</p><p>Max let out a long and deep sigh and shook his head. ‘’Lando why do you even care that I’m fucking both of them?’’ He asked the Englishman. He had turned his head to just stare up at the ceiling by now, wondering how his life had actually gotten to this point and wincing a little because he had used the present tense. He wasn’t fucking Charles anymore, sad as he was about it. ‘’Because when I know I can actually tell you things that I pick up, like Charles getting all jealous at Daniel for having sex with you because apparently you had some sort of fight? I need to know things, Max!’’</p><p>Max ignored Lando’s weird antics for the moment and instead focused on the bit of information in there that he actually cared about. ‘’Wait…Charles was getting jealous at Daniel? But…that doesn’t make any sense…’’ He started frowning deeply then, because that really didn’t make any sense whatsoever. Charles had been playing him. He’d just been having sex with Max in order to manipulate him so that he could become world champion. So…why then was he getting jealous about him sleeping with Daniel again?</p><p>‘’Oh you think that’s the part that doesn’t make any sense?!’’ Lando called out loudly. ‘’Well Daniel then asked him if he wanted to be exclusive with you and Charles said YES.’’ He added, and Max’s brain pretty much stopped functioning at that point. ‘’I…you…he said what…?’’ He asked after staying quiet for about a minute. ‘’Charles… said that?’’ He asked quietly. ‘’Yeah, I heard it. And then I confronted the both of them and made them tell me what you should’ve have ages ago.’’ Lando replied. </p><p>Max let out another incredibly deep sigh. He didn’t know how to feel at all, and he decided that coming clean with Lando so someone might be able to talk some sense into him was probably the best course of action to take here. ‘’Okay, so I can talk to you right? I can trust you to not share all of this with the rest of the world?’’ Max asked, really just to make sure. He trusted Lando to a large extent, he just needed the Englishman to know he was being very serious right now.</p><p>Once again, Lando made a disbelieving sound and Max was pretty sure he could hear his friend roll his eyes. ‘’Yeah duh. I’m one of your best friends, Max. If you can’t talk to me I don’t know who else you could find.’’ He replied. Max did smile a little at that and took a deep breath, before he finally started to talk. ‘’So, here’s the problem. I’ve had a crush on Charles for months now. And it’s been getting worse… So after the Australia race he came over to my place to apparently fight with me some more about how I almost made him crash or whatever and we had angry sex and before I knew it we had an arrangement to keep doing that because we obviously can’t date even though I really fucking wanted to.’’</p><p>Max stopped for a moment then to let Lando process this and see if the Englishman had any questions. When he apparently didn’t, he continued. ‘’We then basically spent the next week and a half together before Bahrain, when everything just completely fell apart. I don’t know if you’ve seen this interview Charles did with Motorsport…?’’ He asked. He could hear some quick typing on the other side then, and Max assumed that Lando went to quickly look for it. ‘’About two thirds in he talks about getting into my head…’’ Max continued, closing his eyes for a moment as he remembered the quote. ‘’That’s obviously about fucking me to fuck me over, right?’’</p><p>Lando scrolled down to what Max was pointing out and hummed a little as he read the quote a few times. ‘’I…can see how you would think that.’’ He told the Dutchman, who sighed deeply. ‘’Right? It’s so fucking fucked up.’’ He said, groaning a little as he let his head fall back against the headrest of the chair. ‘’On the other hand, Charles did say to Dan that he didn’t mean it that way or something. Have you actually talked to Charles about it?’’ Max sighed for about the 1,000th time that night and shook his head. ‘’I mean I yelled at him for a little while to get it off my chest and then I’ve been ignoring him ever since because he’s an asshole.’’</p><p>‘’So have you considered that there might actually be a perfectly reasonable explanation for this and you’re being all grumpy and mean to amazing Lando because you’re too quick to anger and won’t listen to Charles trying to explain this to you?’’ Lando suggested, his tone a little too judgemental for Max’s liking. ‘’I…don’t be a dick, Lando.’’ He grumbled, sighing deeply again. ‘’Do you really think that I should hear him out though? What if there’s not an explanation and he actually did use me? Then I’ll just get hurt again…’’ </p><p>Max could hear Lando hum, and it was a few moments before the Brit finally replied. ‘’Here’s what you need to consider, Max. Do you want to be with Charles? Enough to risk getting hurt? Because there’s always a chance of that. In any relationship. The only real issue is whether you are brave enough to go out there and risk it.’’ Max was silent after that for a little while, before he just started to laugh. ‘’Oh my fucking god. Where did all of that wisdom come from?!’’ he demanded to know. Lando chuckled a little too then and shrugged. ‘’I dunno. I’m just a very smart and wise boy and sometimes I put words in the correct order. It happens. You should really go and have a think though. You suck at CoD anyway!’’</p><p>Max begrudgingly agreed with that and decided to end his gaming night with Lando there. They said their goodbyes, after which Max turned his PC off and decided that he’d be better off in bed. His thinking just got better when he was really comfy. He went to brush his teeth and undressed himself, before he crawled into bed and started his staring contest with the ceiling. He considered Lando’s questions for a really long time, until he finally settled on an answer. He grabbed his phone and started typing out a text. When he finished, he took another minute or so to gather all of his willpower, before he finally hit send.</p><p>MV [00:11]: I talked to Lando. I’m willing to hear you out.<br/>
CL [00:13]: You want me to come over to talk?<br/>
MV [00:13]: No. But you can call me if you want to.</p><p>About five whole seconds passed before Max’s phone started to ring, with Charles’ name showing up in the display. He let out a long sigh and took deep breath to gather all of his strength, before he finally dared to press the answer button. ‘’Hey.’’ He said, biting his lip for a moment. ‘’Lando convinced me to hear you out, so I’m going to. I…I want to give you one chance to clear this up, but that’s it. Okay?’’ He could even tell himself how unsure he sounded, and he was already cursing a little at himself. This was not the time for his resolve to waver, not at all.</p><p>Charles hummed a little in response, before he finally started to speak. He sounded a little tired, and a pang of guilt went through Max at the thought of having kept Charles from his beauty sleep, only to be followed directly by a bit of a shiver at the thought of half-naked Charles in a bed… ‘’Hi, Maxy.’’ The Monegasque said, sounding a little hesitant from his side as well. ‘’I…hope that I only need one chance.’’ He told Max. The Dutchman didn’t really respond to that, and so Charles just continued to speak.</p><p>‘’First of all, it was a stupid thing to say. I know that and I’m really sorry that it happened.. But…I think the uhm…’’ Sleepy Charles was obviously searching for the correct word in what was his third language, and Max couldn’t help but smile fondly just at how cute the Monegasque was. ‘’…the circumstances in which the interview happened clear it up a bit. It was just after the race in Australia, when I was really angry with you. So it didn’t take much to get me to say some bad things about you…’’ He sighed again then and swallowed audibly for a moment, before he continued. </p><p>‘’But I didn’t mean anything in the way you think I did. I would never, ever use you, Maxy.’’ Charles told the Dutchman. ‘’I really like you and…if you talked to Lando he must have told you that I want us to be exclusive. Just the thought of you heading back to Daniel to….I hated it. I know that I have no right to, but I want you all to myself, Maxy. I really do.’’ Max blushed then. He actually, fucking blushed. He wanted to be just Charles’. More than anything, really. But they still had things to discuss.</p><p>‘’You promise that it was just a mistake?’’ Max asked quietly. ‘’It was, Maxy. I was just so angry, I…you know how I can get.’’ Charles replied with a bit of a sigh. ‘’I didn’t really think. Said things that I shouldn’t have…I’m sorry.’’ Max smiled a little then and hummed. This was probably a bad idea, but he wanted to do it anyway. ‘’Do you still want to come over?’’ He asked the Monegasque. He heard a bit of a gasp on the other side, before Charles quickly answered. ‘’Yes! I do! Do you want me to?’’ He asked, already getting up if Max heard the sounds on the other side of the line correctly.</p><p>After Max agreed and asked him to come over, Charles very quickly cut their conversation off so that he could get dressed again and head to his car. Max of course knew exactly how far it was from Charles’ apartment to his own, but he was still a little surprised at how fast Charles had gotten there when he heard the doorbell. Max had put on the first shirt and sweatpants he could find, and hurried to open the door for the Monegasque now that he had arrived. He let Charles in, closed the door behind the man, and instantly hugged him tightly as soon as he could. He was still unsure about a lot of things. Their future, their relationship, their love. All that he knew for sure was that he was brave enough to give his heart to this man and risk it getting broken. Because he was in love with Charles Leclerc, and he was willing to risk everything for it.</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Making up</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm back! It's been 5 days, but I needed a bit of a break and I'm moving next month, so I've been really busy getting all that in order. (It's a lot of work, who knew)</p><p>Enjoy the chapter, let me know if you did! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Max hugged Charles close as soon as the Monegasque was in the door. It drew a little bit of a surprised reaction from Charles, but he did hug Max back and rubbed his back a little as he held him in his arms. ‘’Hi Maxy. Missed me that much?’’ He asked quietly, a sweet little smile on his face when Max just hummed in agreement. After a minute or so, Charles hummed and started to ever so slightly pull away. ‘’Do you maybe want to move to the couch so we can talk a little more about everything?’’ He put a gentle hand on Max’s cheek then, and the warm smile that he received just made the Dutchman feel weak at the knees. ‘’Yeah. That sounds nice.’’ He easily agreed. </p><p>He pulled away and let Charles walk ahead, before he hummed. ‘’Charles, do you want something to drink?’’ He asked the Monegasque, who turned around and nodded. ‘’Yes. Uhm…do you maybe have something a little more fitting than just water though? Maybe some wine?’’ He suggested, raising his eyebrows a little. ‘’Probably…’’ Max replied, looking a little sheepish. He wasn’t a wine drinker at all, so he would have to dig around a little to see whether he had something. ‘’I’ll be back.’’ He assured Charles, before he quickly headed over to the kitchen.</p><p>Max started to quickly rummage around in all of his cupboards, desperately looking for a bottle of wine that was good enough to serve to Charles. He quickly found a bottle, but put it away again when he realized it was one of those bottles you get as an added extra for ordering enough pizzas…definitely not good enough for rich boy and probable wine-snob Charles Leclerc. So he continued to look, finally stumbling upon an expensive looking bottle that he had been given at some sort of sponsor event or whatever. That would probably do. He brought the bottle, a corkscrew and two wineglasses along with him to the living room, and found Charles sitting on the couch.</p><p>‘’Aaahh, there we go.’’ Charles said with a bright smile. He took the bottle from Max and opened it, before setting it aside. ‘’It has to breathe first, Max.’’ He told the Dutchman with a fond smile when he got a weird look. ‘’Hmm…okay…’’ Max just replied not really getting the concept, before he turned to the more important matter at hand. He knew that they could speak about Charles’ dumb interview for hours longer, but that wasn’t what he wanted. Not what he needed. Before he really knew it, the words that had been going through his head for the past two weeks were out of his mouth and into the world. ‘’I want you to be my boyfriend.’’ He swallowed nervously immediately after saying it, but at least he still had the nerve to continue looking into Charles’ eyes as he waited for a response.</p><p>What he saw was the Monegasque’s eyes widening, shock at the bluntness of his words written all over his face. ‘’I…you…are you serious?’’ Charles asked then. Before Max could even answer, Charles was holding the wine again, now pouring the both of them a glass because he apparently really needed a drink for this. Fuck letting it breathe for a while. Max looked on as Charles did that and hummed, biting his lip a little. ‘’Yeah, I am.’’ He told Charles, giving him a weak smile as he nervously started to pull at his sweatpants. </p><p>‘’I…okay wow. I did not expect you to just come out and ask me like that.’’ Charles admitted with a bit of a chuckle. He stayed quiet for a moment then, before he let out a long, deep sigh, which Max took to mean a negative answer. ‘’It’s okay if you don’t.’’ He quickly said, trying to save himself some embarrassment. He was about to continue talking, to tell Charles how it was fine and he shouldn’t even have brought it up, when he suddenly found the Monegasque’s lips on his own. After needing a second to recover from the surprise, Max closed his eyes and started to kiss Charles back, moving slightly closer to him to make it easier.</p><p>When Charles pulled away soon after, he sighed again and gently took Max’s hand in his own. ‘’Maxy…’’ He started. ‘’I want nothing more than to be with you.’’ He admitted, giving the Dutchman a warm, genuine smile that just melted Max’s heart every single time he saw it. ‘’But you know just how difficult it will be. We’re teammates, we’re public figures, we…it’s the reason I wanted to just have a fun arrangement with you in the first place. But over the past days I’ve realized it’s not enough for me either. I want to be with you. To wake up next to you in the morning. To kiss you awake or cuddle with you on the couch on a lazy day.’’</p><p>Max absolutely loved everything that Charles was saying, but given the way Charles was talking, he was working towards a very clear ‘but’. ‘’But…’’ Charles did continue, just as Max had predicted. ‘’If we’re really going to do this, I think we should keep it to ourselves. Not only does nobody in the outside world have the right to know our private life, but I think people will only try and use it against us.’’ He took another big sip of wine and gently caressed Max’s hand with his free one. ‘’Is that alright for you?’’ He asked with a soft hum.</p><p>Was that it? That was the big but? It really wasn’t even something that Max had to think about at all. ‘’Yes. Of course.’’ He said quickly. ‘’I…fuck everyone else. It’s about us, not them. If I want to fuck Charles Leclerc behind closed doors and have him be my boyfriend, that’s my decision, not theirs. They don’t deserve to know a thing, just us two.’’ He was smiling brightly now, and was already leaning in again to Charles to kiss him. Instead of leaning in as well, Charles moved back, pulling Max along until he was lying down with the Dutchman on top of himself.</p><p>‘’Fancy seeing you here.’’ Charles noted with a grin, before he finally pulled Max down to kiss him deeply. They made out for a couple of minutes, before Max pulled away to sit up for a moment. He pretty much downed his entire glass of wine in one go, earning him a raised eyebrow from Charles. ‘’You planning something?’’ He asked curiously, to which Max shrugged. ‘’I dunno. It’s getting pretty close to one in the morning and I’d really like to go and cuddle with my boyfriend in bed…’’ He said, giving Charles an inquisitive look to see whether he was planning on coming along.</p><p>Charles chuckled a little at that and fondly shook his head. ‘’You want me to stay the night then?’’ He asked curiously, finishing his own glass of wine before he put the cork back on the bottle. ‘’Yes, you idiot. Of course I want you to stay the night after giving me that whole monologue about waking up next to me in the morning!’’ Max rolled his eyes at Charles then as well and took the Monegasque’s hand, dragging him along to the bedroom. He wasn’t even planning on having sex with his boyfriend, just to be with him. As a couple.</p><p>He quickly undressed himself again and crawled back into bed, before he opened the duvet and patted the spot next to him. ‘’Right here. You get the right side of the bed.’’ He decided. Charles was about halfway through taking his pants off when he started to laugh at Max and fondly shook his head. ‘’And you just decided that for me then?’’ He asked with an amused smile, before he finished up and got in next to his boyfriend. ‘’Uh huh.’’ Max replied. ‘’My apartment. My bed. My rules.’’ He noted happily.</p><p>He waited for Charles to get into bed with him, before he instantly cuddled in close, putting his head down on Charles’ shoulder as the Monegasque held him close. ‘’Back where you belong, hmm?’’ Charles said quietly, gently pushing a few fingers through Max’s hair as he felt the Dutchman completely relax in his arms. Max didn’t say anything in response, just hummed in agreement as he closed his eyes and nuzzled his nose a little in Charles’ neck. ‘’You smell really nice. What is that cologne?’’ He mumbled, while Charles hummed. ‘’This? Armani I think.’’</p><p>Max burst out into giggles at Charles’ answer and just grinned at his boyfriend when Charles looked down at him. ‘’Of course. Everything for the sponsors, right Charlie?’’ He asked and continued to chuckle a little while Charles blushed slightly. ‘’I…shut up. Their products are just all really nice!’’ He replied, before he just moved a hand and squeezed Max’s bum. ‘’Don’t make me get all dominant with you because you’re being a brat again.’’ He teased, to which Max just hummed in response, before he let out a big yawn. ‘’Tomorrow, okay? I’m really tired now.’’ He told his boyfriend as he let his eyes fall closed for the moment.</p><p>Charles continued to chuckle a little and smiled down at Max as he watched him. ‘’Well I was just joking, but if you’d like me to be a little dominant I have absolutely no issue with that.’’ He said, unable to hold in the little smirk that came to his lips. Max let out a pleased sigh then and nodded. ‘’You know I love it when you’re a little rough with me. As long as you know that there’s no way I’m going to call you daddy when I want you to fuck me.’’ He replied, opening his eyes again to give his boyfriend a playful look. When Charles just happily laughed along with his boyfriend and finally settled on not wanting that in any way, Max turned off the lights and cuddled in for the night. ‘’Goodnight, Charlie.’’ He whispered, before he finally drifted off in his boyfriend’s arms.</p><p>Max was woken up the next morning by a pair of soft lips on his own. He could feel a smile appearing on them as he started to wake up, and felt a tightening of the arms around his waist as he started to kiss back. ‘’Bonjour, mon nounours.’’ Charles whispered once he pulled away, giving Max a warm and loving smile as the Dutchman rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Max stretched himself out then, before letting out a big yawn and curling back up in the comfortable warmth of Charles’ arms. ‘’Morning.’’ He mumbled in return, before he just nuzzled right back into his boyfriend’s chest. ‘’Charlie, what time is it?’’ Max asked when he realized it had been a lot darker than when he usually woke up.</p><p>‘’It’s…’’ Charles started. He stayed silent for a moment then, and Max figured that he was checking his phone for the time. ‘’Twelve past seven in the morning.’’ He replied, earning himself a loud, disbelieving groan from the Dutchman. ‘’Are you fucking kidding me, Charles? It’s fucking seven in the morning and you wake me up? We went to bed at like one. I need my beauty sleep.’’ He said, pouting as he turned his head to look up at his boyfriend.</p><p>Charles hummed in return and very gently ran his fingers up and down Max’s side and hip. ‘’Well I’m sorry for waking my boyfriend up with kisses because I can’t resist him looking so cute and kissable in the morning after I wake up.’’ He replied with a bit of a huff, looking somewhat annoyed with Max’s reaction. He then got a little smirk on his face and slipped a hand into the back of Max’s boxers, gently massaging his bum as he continued to speak. ‘’Now are you really acting like a little brat after I woke you up so gently and lovingly?’’ He asked curiously.</p><p>The action drew a low moan from Max as he felt Charles’ hand, and he was pretty much instantly awake. ‘’Charlie, I…’’ He started, then gasped softly when he felt a finger dangerously close to where he already desperately wanted it to go. He swallowed thickly once, before he decided to play along. ‘’And what if I am?’’ He asked the Monegasque, biting his lip a little as he looked up at him. ‘’Are you gonna show me why I should be thankful to have a loving boyfriend like you?’’</p><p>The wide grin on Charles’ face proved to Max that this was exactly the reaction to Monegasque had been looking for, a sentiment that was only further proven to be true when he pretty much smashed his lips against Max’s. It wasn’t sweet, or gentle, but that really wasn’t what either of them was looking for. Max wanted desperately to just let go of control and offer himself completely to the man he loved, and Charles wanted nothing more than to finally be in control of the man who had beaten him time and time again in their younger years.</p><p>It was quick, it was hard, and in the end, neither of them lasted long. After having Max suck him off and eating the Dutchman out to prepare him in return, he fucked him hard from behind, until he was sure his fingerprints would be visible on his boyfriend’s hips afterwards. When they finally finished, they both fell down onto the bed, breathing heavily, but feeling incredibly satisfied. </p><p>Charles remembered what Daniel had told him after the first time they’d done this, and so after cleaning the both of them up a bit, he collected Max back in his arms as he sat up against the headboard and gently brushed the hair from his sweaty forehead. ‘’You are so fucking gorgeous.’’ He told his boyfriend, followed by a long, pleased sigh. ‘’And I’m so happy I can call you my boyfriend now.’’ Curling himself up at Charles’ side a little, Max sighed happily in return and gave Charles a sweet smile. ‘’Me too.’’ He replied, leaning up to give his boyfriend a quick kiss before he cuddled back in and nuzzled his face into Charles’ hip. ‘’Can I sleep some more now though?’’ He added, followed by a yawn, which only sent Charles into laughter again.</p><p>‘’Of course, Maxy. You can do anything that you want. You just sleep, and I’ll make us some breakfast in bed when you wake up. After that we can just hang out, or you can kick me out when you’re sick of me.’’ Charles said quietly, as he watched Max’s eyes fall shut again. The Dutchman was already half asleep again, so his answer made Charles laugh. ‘’Am never gonna get sick of you. You’re way too pretty…’’ He mumbled, before he just unceremoniously fell asleep again in Charles’ arms.</p><p>When he woke up again, Max was all alone. For a moment, he considered the possibility that everything had been a dream, but the smell of baking that entered his nose at least told him that that wasn’t true. After a couple of minutes, when Max had finally almost found the will and courage to leave his warm, comfortable bed, the bedroom door opened, and if he thought he hadn’t been dreaming before, he suddenly did so now. Into his bedroom walked a shirtless Charles Leclerc, wearing those damn glasses that made Max’s knees feel weak, carrying two plates of pancakes with fruit for their breakfast and giving him just the brightest smile when he saw that Max was awake. And at that moment, Max was pretty sure he was the luckiest man in the entire world.</p>
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<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Breakfast in Bed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Only 2 days for the next update this time! I was excited so I wanted to write more, hope you enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Max was sure he looked a little dumbfounded when Charles entered the room, which was confirmed by the little chuckle coming from his boyfriend as he walked over to the bed. ‘’Goodmorning again, sleepy head.’’ Charles said happily, putting their plates down on the nightstand for the moment, before he got back into bed and kissed Max gently. ‘’Sorry, I was hoping to be back before you woke up and surprise you, but you decided to not do what I wanted you to, as usual.’’ He said, a fond smile on his face as he kissed Max a few more times. </p><p>‘’Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend though?’’ Max replied with a bit of a hum. ‘’My boyfriend Charles the health freak would never eat pancakes.’’ He teased with a bit of a smirk, making Charles shake his head. ‘’You are ridiculous.’’ He replied to Max, before he shrugged a little. ‘’I made them as healthy as they possibly could be and besides, I already had my morning workout before.’’ He winked at Max then, his fingers running over Max’s bare thigh as a reminder of the fun they’d had earlier that morning.</p><p>Max’s breathing hitched slightly at the feeling, and he nuzzled his face back into Charles’ neck for the moment, placing a few small kisses on the skin there. ‘’I just have the best boyfriend.’’ He said quietly. ‘’Early morning sex followed by breakfast in bed. Ten out of ten would absolutely recommend.’’ He pulled away from Charles with a bright smile, which was dimmed a little by the small frown he saw on Charles’ face. ‘’You’re all mine though.’’ The Monegasque replied. ‘’And I yours. I…I don’t like sharing.’’ He added, holding Max a little closer.</p><p>The Dutchman defused the situation and Charles apparent distress by kissing him again, and smiling when he pulled away. ‘’Breakfast?’’ He suggested happily, getting Charles to nod. ‘’Yes, of course. Let me just run back to the kitchen and get our coffee.’’ The Monegasque replied, pecking Max’s lips before he was off again. God, that man just had the most energy in the morning, and Max was already very much dreading the days Charles would want him to work out with him at like 7 in the morning. That was just not how his biological clock worked at all.</p><p>After Charles had left, Max slowly sat up. He was still very naked, and even though he didn’t want to get out of bed to put something on, he didn’t really want to put it all on show either. So he pulled the duvet up as high as he possibly could, before he reached over for his breakfast, because it smelled amazing and he was getting really hungry. He took his first bite just as Charles walked back into the room and smiled over at the Monegasque as he chewed. After swallowing the bite, his smile turned into a grin and he kissed Charles as soon as the man was within reach. ‘’Tastes amazing, babe. Thank you.’’ He said honestly.</p><p>They had a nice, quiet, relaxed breakfast after that, enjoying each other’s company even more than the pancakes and coffee Charles had so gallantly provided. Once they both finished eating, Charles wrapped his arms back around Max’s waist and pulled his boyfriend in close. He buried his face into Max’s hair and just breathed him in for a moment as he relaxed. ‘’So what’s next on the agenda?’’ He asked curiously, having been serious before about really just wanting to spend time with Max doing whatever he wanted to do.</p><p>‘’Well…’’ The Dutchman started. ‘’I don’t know how dirty you feel, but personally I still have lube on my ass, so I’m gonna take a shower before I do anything else today.’’ He said, making Charles laugh out loud. ‘’You are very welcome for that!’’ The Monegasque finally replied, smiling brightly as Max turned his head and looked up at the man. ‘’Thanks, Charlie.’’ He said sincerely, kissing his boyfriend again. ‘’Really enjoyed this morning, but now I really have to shower.’’ </p><p>Max pulled away then, stepping out of bed and swaying his hips just enough to show off the bruises that Charles had put on them as he walked over to the bathroom. He left the door to the room open, and cleared his throat after he had turned the water on and there seemed to be no response whatsoever. ‘’Leclerc, you coming or not?!’’ He called out, jolting Charles awake so that he could be at his boyfriend’s side in about five seconds. ‘’You never said you wanted me to join you!’’ The Monegasque explained his lagging behind, making Max shake his head. ‘’It was implied! Who else is going to wash the lube off my bum?’’</p><p>Charles couldn’t help but laugh at that and got rid of his pants as quickly as was humanly possible, before he finally joined his boyfriend in the shower. He hugged Max from behind, putting his chin down on the Dutchman’s shoulder. ‘’How am I supposed to resist you when you’re all naked and gorgeous for me again though?’’ He asked quietly. Max had just started to enjoy the warm water when Charles joined him in the shower, and Charles pressing his slightly colder body against his back had him gasp softly. He had to bite his lip when he felt Charles’ member against his ass, and he started to lean into the embrace a little more. ‘’Are you really horny again already, Charles?’’ He asked his boyfriend, who just hummed softly in return.</p><p>‘’I’m trying not to be, but you’re making it very hard.’’ Charles replied, before he just started giggling a little at his own excruciatingly bad pun. ‘’Oh my god…’’ Max mumbled, face palming for a moment before he just shook his head. ‘’You are so lucky you’re gorgeous, babe.’’ He told his boyfriend, turning his head to place a kiss on his cheek. He turned around in the man’s arms then, kissing him deeply as he wrapped his arms around Charles’ neck. He wasn’t planning on having sex again in the slightest. He was still sore from a couple of hours ago, and messy shower sex wasn’t really something he was looking forward to either.</p><p>He made out with Charles for a few minutes, before he pulled away slightly to give the man a sly smile. ‘’I’m not going to have you fuck me in the shower, but I can still make my man happy.’’ He said with a bit of a smirk, as he wrapped his fingers around Charles’ cock. The Monegasque gasped softly, and he seemed a little glassy-eyed as he stared into Max’s eyes. ‘’God. Please, Maxy.’’ He nearly begged, and with a soft hum, Max sank down onto his knees.</p><p>He didn’t think of himself as anything close to a blowjob specialist, but the sounds he drew from Charles as he sucked the man off made him seem like an absolute legend at it. In the end, because Charles asked oh so nicely, he let the Monegasque come all over him. It quickly washed off anyway in the shower, and afterwards Max just went straight back to making out with his boyfriend. He did so for a few minutes, before he pulled away and kissed a still very out of it looking Charles a final time. ‘’You take a moment to collect yourself, babe. I’ll see you in a few minutes.’’ He said and chuckled.</p><p>He quickly washed his hair and body, before he stepped out of the shower. He dried himself off quickly and put on the underwear he had brought along before he went out to the kitchen for a drink. Max was humming happily to himself as he walked out of the bedroom, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw a very much unexpected person suddenly standing in his kitchen, having a drink. At the same time, Lando covered his eyes and screamed out. ‘’AAHHHH MY EYES. COVER YOURSELF UP MAN!’’ He called, putting his water down so he could put both of his hands on his face to protect himself instead of just the one.</p><p>Instead of being embarrassed, like he was probably supposed to be, Max turned combative. ‘’What the hell are you doing here unannounced?!’’ He yelled in return, but went to stand behind the kitchen island so that at least his bottom half was covered up. ‘’I came over to cheer you up because Charles was a mean asshole to you! I didn’t know I was walking in on what I can only assume is yet another one of your casual sexcapades!’’ Lando replied as he finally moved his hands from his eyes. ‘’Whoever it was sounded like he was having a great time though, so kudos to you.’’ He added with a bit of a smirk.</p><p>Max just groaned a little in return and rubbed his own face for a moment. He really couldn’t use this. They had just agreed the night before not to tell anyone about their relationship, and he could only assume that that included their friends as well. ‘’Well they were. I’m a great fuck.’’ Max replied matter of factly. He was about to try and get Lando somewhere else so that he could get Charles out of the house without too much trouble, but it apparently just wasn’t meant to be, as a once again shirtless and only dressed in sweatpants Charles pretty much ran into kitchen. ‘’What’s wrong? I heard yel-Oh…’’ He started, then stopped talking immediately when his eyes fell on the Englishman standing in the kitchen.</p><p>Lando meanwhile, was looking at Charles in complete disbelief. His mouth fell open a little, before he just turned his face to look over at Max. Then back at Charles. Then back at Max. ‘’You’re still fucking him?!’’ He asked, looking like he was having a slight bit of trouble processing all this. He then looked back at Charles, as another thought suddenly came into his head. ‘’Mate you are LOUD.’’ He told Charles, who had seemed annoyed from the moment the Brit asked Max if he was still having sex with Charles like it was the worst thing in the world. Maybe that’s why his response wasn’t as composed as it would usually be.</p><p>‘’Well you’d be loud too if you ever got a blowjob like that, but you can’t even get with Max in your dreams.’’ He told the Brit off, before he went over to Max and protectively wrapped his arms around the Dutchman’s waist. Max was looking a little uncomfortable as he and Lando spoke, and so Charles naturally wanted to go and take care of his boyfriend. Max leaned against him a little as he was held and turned his head to give Charles a kiss on his cheek. The jig was up now anyway. ‘’Why don’t you go and get dressed and I’ll get Lando settled?’’ He suggested quietly, making Charles sigh a little. He looked fully ready to confront Lando and defend himself, but Max wanted to talk this out in a peaceful manner.</p><p>‘’Yeah, fine.’’ Charles finally mumbled in return, pulling away from Max and leaving the room after sending Lando another look. Once the Monegasque had left and the door to Max’s bedroom had closed, the Brit’s jaw just dropped again as he stepped closer to Max. ‘’What. The. Hell. Tell me everything. Now. Did you guys make up? Are you fucking again? What the hell is happening, mate?’’ He demanded to know.</p><p>Max first rolled his eyes a little in return, after which he gestured towards the living room. ‘’Come on. Sit down and we’ll talk.’’ He told his friend. He hummed softly after he saw Lando giving him a look and blushed slightly, knowing the bruises on his hips were still visible. ‘’Not a word.’’ He told him as he quickly walked to the couch and grabbed a blanket, putting it on him from the waist down as he sat.</p><p>‘’I wasn’t gonna say anything about how apparently you and Charlie boy tend to get a little rough when you get it on.’’ Lando quipped, the smirk still on his face as he sat down in a comfy chair and looked over at Max. ‘’But seriously though…talk to me. Explain all…this.’’ Max sighed deeply in response and decided he was going to try and get this over with quickly. ‘’So I thought about what we talked about after hanging up last night and I ended up texting Charles and he called me and we talked for a little while and he basically cleared everything up as a giant misunderstanding…’’ He started off as a summary, taking a bit of a breath before he continued into what was actually the most important part.</p><p>‘’…and so then I finally asked him to come over because I missed him and we talked about how we both felt and had a drink and then finally I just asked him outright to be my boyfriend…and he said yes…’’ Max said, swallowing and looking a little nervous when he was done. He wasn’t usually this fidgety, but when it came to Charles…god that boy just did things to his brain. </p><p>Lando hummed a little in return to Max and considered his words for a moment, before responding. ‘’So you’re cutting it off with Daniel then? You’re exclusive with Charles?’’ He asked curiously, just wondering how he should interpret all of this. Max nodded in response. ‘’Yeah, of course I’ll have to end that. Charles is my boyfriend now, so of course we’re exclusive.’’ He told Lando. As he finished, he saw a figure in the corner of his eye and turned to see a happily smiling Charles walking over. </p><p>‘’That’s what I like to hear.’’ The Monegasque noted, leaning down to kiss Max as he sat down next to his boyfriend on the couch. ‘’You can go get dressed, babe. I’ll try not to kill Lando while you’re gone.’’ He had a playful smile on his face as he said it, and so Max didn’t feel too terrible leaving him alone with his friend as he quickly went to put some clothes on. He put on a sweater and some jeans, before he quickly returned so that Charles really wouldn’t have any time to do some murdering. </p><p>He found the pair of them talking about the Bahrain race exactly where he had left them, and was relieved to see they were at least getting along again. He sat back down next to Charles and hummed when he got a look from the Monegasque. ‘’When are you going to say to Daniel that you cannot do the thing anymore?’’ He asked curiously, making Max frown slightly. ‘’I dunno. Soon probably, why?’’</p><p>Charles shrugged a little at that, but it was clear that he was trying to hide a little how he truly felt about it. ‘’Because I like the idea of having you all to myself for sure.’’ He told Max, giving him a kiss and a small smile before he turned back to Lando and continued his earlier conversation. Max wasn’t really listening. He recalled Lando having told him how possessive and jealous Charles had gotten earlier when he had spoken with Dan, and he couldn’t deny that the thought of his boyfriend being a little jealous turned him on. Hmmm, he could probably have some fun with this in the future…</p>
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<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Hanging out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>New chapter! And what's that in the tags? A new pairing? *Gasp*<br/>It's really happening everyone. Get your seatbelts on, we're doing this.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In the end, Max, Charles and Lando decided to hang out as the three of them together for the rest of the day. They spent a little time just talking and catching up, until they started running out of subjects to talk about and Max decided that they should probably do something a little more fun. So he booted up his Playstation and started a little FIFA tournament between the three of them. They spent about an hour or so on that, until suddenly, Lando paused the game when his phone rang. He visibly blushed a little as he checked who it was and quickly got up. ‘’I’ll be right back. It’s Carlos, I…gotta take this.’’ He said and quickly left the room, heading into Max’s guest room and closing the door behind himself.</p><p>Max and Charles instantly gave each other a look, and Max could see Charles’ face scrunching up a little as he thought. ‘’You don’t think…?’’ The Monegasque asked. ‘’Noooo. Lando? And Carlos? Aren’t they both straight? They aren’t….you think…?’’ Max replied, stumbling over his own thoughts a little as he looked very confused himself. ‘’I don’t know…’’ Charles said, looking over at the door Lando had gone through. ‘’They’d be super cute together though.’’ They decided to start putting out some feelers with the Brit when he returned, to figure out exactly what was going on here. They waited for a couple of minutes, until Lando finally finished his phone call and came back to join them in the living room.</p><p>It took all of about three seconds for the entire plan to fall apart, when Charles’ curiosity got the better of him and he just yelled. ‘’Lando! Are you and Carlos doing sex?’’ Lando instantly stopped walking and just stared at Charles in absolute shock. ‘’W-what…?’’ He asked, nearly dropping his phone. He sent Max a desperate look, asking for his help, and the Dutchman answered by punching Charles’ arm a little. ‘’CHARLES!’’ He exclaimed, shaking his head before he sighed deeply. ‘’You don’t just ask people that…’’ He told the man, still shaking his head as he gestured for Lando to come back over and sit down with them. </p><p>The Brit finally came out of his shock when Max asked him to come and sit and walked back over, letting himself fall into a comfortable chair where he slid down until he was pretty much horizontal. He still wasn’t saying anything, just stared at the two men, which was very much out of character. ‘’What Charles meant…’’ Max started, sending his boyfriend another glare, ‘’Was whether you are in any way involved with Carlos? It’s just that the way you were acting made us think that maybe there was something going on…’’ He smiled a little at Lando then, and decided to quickly add something. ‘’It’s okay if you don’t want to tell us, by the way. It’s really none of our business, we were just curious given the way you were acting…’’</p><p>Lando let out a bit of a groan, before he just leaned forward and buried his face in his hands, rubbing it a few times. ‘’I don’t fucking know what we are or not.’’ He complained, before he sat back in the chair with a deep sigh. ‘’We uh…we went out together one night and it’s all a bit hazy, but suffice to say that I woke up in his bed the next morning with a sore ass and I guess we’ve kinda just been circling around each other since then? It’s not awkward or anything ‘cause we’re not like that, but neither of us have really mentioned it much either.’’ He sighed again and finally just shrugged. ‘’And him being Spanish makes it infinitely worse because I never know if I’m being flirted with or whether he’s just being nice!’’</p><p>Max started laughing at that last part and nodded along with Lando. ‘’I know exactly what you mean. I can never really gauge this one either, because of his whole being sort of French deal.’’ He told the Brit, while Charles gave Max a look. ‘’I am not French.’’ He said, in his distinctly French accent, making both Max and Lando chuckle a little. ‘’Anyway,’’ Max went on, trying to put a lid on this before it would really start to annoy Charles. ‘’How long ago was your…night out?’’ He asked curiously.</p><p>‘’Uhm…after pre-season testing we went out together in Barcelona so that would be a month and a half ago I think…’’ After hearing Lando’s reply, Max stayed silent for a second, before he threw a pillow at the Brit’s face. ‘’OI! What’s that for?!’’ Lando demanded after it hit him squarely in the face. ‘’What the fuck happened to you telling me about all the people you pulled?!’’ Max yelled in response, clearly outraged by this apparent lack of trust from Lando’s side. ‘’How fucking dare you accuse me of not sharing with you when you went and fucked your fucking teammate way before I did!’’</p><p>‘’I said that I told you about all the girls I pulled, Max!’’ Lando replied with a bit of a huff. ‘’I…for fuck’s sake, I didn’t even know whether I liked guys before I slept with Carlos! I needed some time to figure this shit out…’’ Max calmed down a little at that, but it was Charles who got the next question in. ‘’And do you? Like guys I mean?’’ The Monegasque asked, raising an eyebrow as he sat back and wrapped an arm around his boyfriend’s shoulders. After a long, laboured sigh, Lando finally just shrugged. ‘’I dunno you guys…I like Carlos. A lot. Probably more than is healthy. He’s a dirty fucker in bed too, I can tell you that. But other guys, I dunno.’’</p><p>‘’Ooohhh, sounds like Lando might be a little in looooove.’’ Charles teased, which earned him a glare from both the Brit and his own boyfriend. ‘’No. Fuck you. We’re not even dating. We hang out more lately when we’re both in England, but…not like that.’’ Lando started pouting a little, and Max couldn’t help but chuckle. ‘’It’s fine, mate. Just follow your own advice and take some time to figure out what you want. You know you can always talk to me if you need to.’’ Max said with a kind smile, then decided he had to add a little bit on the end there. ‘’Unless it’s about Carlos’ performance in bed. I don’t really want to hear about that…’’</p><p>Lando snorted in return and shook his head. ‘’You do though. The man’s a fucking legend. I bet he can teach your Charlie here a thing or two.’’ Max couldn’t help but face palm and just shook his head again. ‘’Lando…please, no.’’ He just said, with Charles chuckling a little next to him. ‘’I take it that means you haven’t told Lando what we have been up to at least.’’ He said with a bit of a smirk. He turned back to the Brit then, curious for more information. ‘’So what was that call just now about then?’’</p><p>‘’Oh Carlos called to say that he’s back in England and asked whether I wanted to hang out anytime soon. So I told him that I’m here in Monaco with you for the time being and that I’d let him know when I got back in the country.’’ Lando answered easily with a bit of a shrug. Charles grinned at that. ‘’Oohhh, Lando playing hard to get!’’ He said, laughing happily. ‘’Way to go, mate!’’ Lando just chuckled a little in response and decided that they probably had to switch subjects. ‘’So…can we do something else now besides talking about my love life?’’</p><p>Neither Max nor Charles really seemed to have a problem with that. They didn’t want to push Lando too much on this, their teasing earlier had been more than enough. They finished their little FIFA tournament, with Max winning, before Lando decided that they should switch gears. He grabbed the controller and went over to the digital store, buying them Alien: Isolation and letting it download as he got up and started to close all the curtains. ‘’We are gonna have an extreme horror gaming experience because just watching a movie is boring and I want to prove that you are both scaredy cats!’’</p><p>He seemed determined to get the both of them back for teasing him earlier, and even though neither of them was that good with horror, Max and Charles were too competitive to really back down from a challenge either. And so they accepted easily enough. They had lunch together while the game downloaded, with Charles in charge of making the three of them some healthy salad and fruit, since both Max and Lando had the tendency to stray from the healthy path from time to time…or whenever they could, really.</p><p>When they finished eating and cleaning up after themselves, they found the game had downloaded in its entirety. ‘’Okay so I assume you’ve both seen Alien?’’ Lando asked when they sat down to finally play. When Charles and Max both agreed, he grinned excitedly and started it up. Lando had played the game before, and so he knew that the first part of the game was perfectly safe, the Alien antagonist of the game would come later. He played right up until that incredible moment, with the gigantic and terrifying Xenomorph slithering down from the ceiling, before it started to hunt for the player character. He then paused the game and held the controller out to an almost comically wide-eyed Max and Charles. ‘’Who wants a go?!’’ He asked excitedly. </p><p>Max and Charles both looked pretty much equally terrified. Neither of them really wanted to play this, but it was finally Max’s competitiveness that won out and he took the controller from Lando. The Brit happily explained both the controls and what Max had to do and where to go now, before he let the Dutchman play the game. It went about as well as Lando had apparently hoped. The controller went from Max to Charles and back after every death, which happened a lot more often than either of them wanted.</p><p>As it turned out, their playing strategies were completely different, too. Whereas Charles took stealth to a new height, by hiding in just about every locker he came across and moving about 1 meter per minute because he was too scared to get caught by the indestructible Alien monstrosity, Max had a lot less patience. He just constantly pretty much ran around the entire map, causing jump scare after jump scare when the Xenomorph suddenly ambushed them. When he was crawling through a vent that was supposed to be safe and suddenly got eye to eye with the Alien, Max got such a scare that he, screaming and all, literally jumped into Charles’ lap, and the slightly trembling Dutchman decided that he had had enough.</p><p>‘’I’m done.’’ He told Lando. ‘’You win. I just can’t fucking handle this game.’’ He was still breathing a little fast, and Charles took the controller from Max, putting it aside and wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s waist as Max still sat in his lap. He cuddled the man close and placed a kiss on his cheek as he chuckled fondly. ‘’I agree, Maxy.’’ He told him. ‘’Why would anyone play this game for fun, I don’t know.’’ Max calmed down a little in Charles’ arms, relaxing enough to be able to hear Lando absolutely losing it from his chair. He just sent his friend a middle finger and cuddled closer to his boyfriend, curling up a little more in his arms. ‘’You’re just jealous.’’ He called out without even really looking at Lando.</p><p>‘’Now boys, don’t fight.’’ Charles said with a smirk before Lando could get in there and inevitably escalate the situation. ‘’We’re having such a nice time. But after Max picked the FIFA tournament and Lando made us play the worst game ever, it’s now my turn. And I want to play Fortnite and see who can get the best finish!’’ Charles said excitedly, making Lando snort. ‘’Well given the sounds you made this morning, you’ve already won that contest.’’ Max groaned loudly at that, his face buried in Charles’ shoulder as the Monegasque chuckled happily. ‘’What can I say, I just have an amazing boyfriend.’’ He noted happily.</p><p>He took the controller back then, happily finding out that Fortnite was still downloaded on Max’s Playstation, even though he always said he hated it. After starting the game, Charles placed another kiss on Max’s cheek to get his attention. ‘’Maxy, I love having you sit in my lap but you have to move so I can play the game…’’ He said quietly. ‘’Fiiiiiine.’’ Max replied after a moment, sighing deeply as he moved to sit back down next to Charles so that the Monegasque knew he wasn’t doing this of his own accord.</p><p>In the end, they spent the next couple of hours playing Fortnite together, handing over the controller after each game and coaching each other to get the best result. Lando even almost won a game, but ended up only coming in third because ‘’They’re all cheating’’. They ordered in some dinner to have together, and finally ended the day by watching a bad, cheesy movie that they could all make fun of together. It was about half past eleven when the movie finished, and Charles had been yawning for about half an hour. It was a little early, and Max had wanted to hang out with Lando for a while longer, but he didn’t want to let Charles go to bed alone either. So they said their goodnights to Lando, before they finally retreated to their own bedroom for the night.</p><p>Once they got there, it immediately got very clear to Max that sleep was the absolute last thing on Charles’ mind. He immediately got pushed against the door as soon as he had closed it behind him, the Monegasque’s lips on his neck. ‘’Fuck, Charles…’’ He mumbled, feeling his boyfriend’s hands going underneath the fabric of his shirt, touching his bare skin. ‘’That’s what I’m planning on doing, yes.’’ The Monegasque answered. Max could feel the smirk on the man’s lips, and fuck, he should be annoyed at Charles’ ruse to get him in bed, but he really, really wanted a piece of that.</p><p>It felt to Max like Charles was being even more possessive of him than usual. He didn’t know if it had something to do with him hanging out with Lando all day, but he didn’t really have any space left in his head to consider it either, considering the way that Charles was fucking him like there was no tomorrow. When he finally found his release, he had his boyfriend’s name on his lips like a chant, begging him for everything that he could possible give him.</p><p>As usual, the man thoroughly cleaned him up afterwards, making sure that Max wouldn’t feel disgusting going to sleep after having sex, before he joined his boyfriend in bed, giving him soft kisses and just looking fondly at him. ‘’You’re perfect.’’ Charles whispered. ‘’And all mine. My lovely boyfriend.’’ He held Max nice and close, and the Dutchman had pretty much fallen asleep when he heard his phone buzzing. He blindly reached for the device, and the message made him groan and smack Charles’ chest. ‘’I hate you so much.’’ He mumbled, before he showed the Monegasque Lando’s text.</p><p>‘’Jesus fucking Christ and I thought that Charles was loud this morning. I take it back, maybe your boo can teach Carlos some tricks instead of the other way around.’’ Lando had added both a kissing emoji and an eggplant to the text, and Max was absolutely mortified.</p><p>He just could not stop blushing, whereas Charles just burst out laughing. ‘’Maxy, it’s Lando. Who cares? Just be proud you have a boyfriend that can make you noisy like that.’’ He was looking very proud of himself, and Max just rolled his eyes. There it was again. This little possessive streak of Charles. He wondered if he had just done this to show Lando exactly who Max belonged to, knowing he’d hear. He put his phone away then and sighed, cuddling in closer to Charles’ side. ‘’Goodnight, Charlie.’’ He just said quietly, before he went to sleep. He was too tired to talk about this now, but he decided that they probably should come morning.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>https://grayparticles.tumblr.com/post/629964131355803648/lestappen-art-by-my-dear-friend-please-do-not<br/>Just wanna share this art because it's absolutely incredible and hot as *FUCK* and I am going to need about 1200 chaptered fics written about just this.</p>
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<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Jealous</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>New chapter! Only 2 days since the last one! Shocker! Also, we've had enough fluff, so I would like to welcome you all back aboard the drama train, destination: Pain.</p><p>Please enjoy and feel free to leave a comment if you did! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When morning came around, Max was once again woken up by gentle kisses from his boyfriend. He opened his eyes to an absolutely beaming Charles, and replied with a lazy smile as he curled himself up a little further and nuzzled his face a little closer to the pleasant body heat that his boyfriend was giving off. He always got a little cold in the morning, and so having Charles this close to his side was very welcome. He felt another little kiss being placed on his temple, and he could hear his boyfriend humming softly before he spoke. </p><p>‘’Goodmorning, Maxy.’’ Charles said quietly. His embrace around Max’s waist tightened a little as the Dutchman cuddled in closer, and he sighed happily as he held his boyfriend in his arms. ‘’How are you feeling? I wasn’t too rough with you the night before, was I?’’ His accent was still thick with sleep as he spoke, and Max almost purred from the pleasant sound hitting hit ears. He experimentally moved around a little, and found that although a bit sore, he was fine. ‘’M’good.’’ He mumbled to Charles. </p><p>‘’I’m happy to hear that, Maxy.’’ Charles said quietly in return. He watched the man wake up in his arms and gently caressed his naked skin as he held his boyfriend in his arms. ‘’Still cannot believe that the annoying boy I raced against in karting is now my very handsome and sexy and naked boyfriend.’’ He got a little chuckle in return from Max, who turned his head to look up at Charles and placed a gentle kiss to his lips. ‘’Since when are you so cheesy in the morning, Charlie?’’ He asked, his dry throat breaking up his voice a little as he spoke.</p><p>Charles chuckled a little in return and kissed Max back before he answered. ‘’Since I’ve been admiring my sleeping boyfriend for the past half hour and came to the realization that I’m a very lucky man.’’ He replied with a bright smile. Some movement could be heard in another part of the apartment, and Charles sighed softly. ‘’I guess we shouldn’t leave Lando waiting too long…’’ He said, very much leaving some space open for Max to disagree with him.</p><p>The Dutchman noticed, of course, and just smiled fondly as he shook his head, before nuzzling it back into Charles’ shoulder. ‘’If he doesn’t know we’re up yet we can at least get another fifteen minutes of naked cuddly times.’’ Max told Charles, who did not need to be told twice. He pulled the duvet up a little and moved slightly to get even more comfortable, before he let out a pleased sigh. They stayed like that for a little while, just cuddling, giving each other little kisses and enjoying one another’s company, before Lando apparently had had enough. </p><p>Loud banging could suddenly be heard on their bedroom door, and both Max and Charles instantly froze. ‘’I’M NOT COMING IN CAUSE YOU COULD BE NAKED, BUT I AM A GROWING BOY AND I NEED FOOD.’’ The Brit yelled loudly. Whereas Charles just started to chuckle, Max groaned loudly into Charles’ skin. ‘’Fuck off!’’ He yelled back. ‘’I’ll come out of bed when I damn well please! You’ll just have to wait a moment!’’ He found he got a little aggressive when his quality time with Charles was disturbed, but could you really blame him? Besides, Lando was one of his best friends, and they yelled at each other all the time. He could take it.</p><p>‘’Lando, just eat some fruit or something! We’ll be there soon!’’ Charles called after him, holding Max nice and close until he was sure that Lando had gone. He smiled down at his boyfriend and kissed him again. ‘’That was hot, you yelling because you want more of me.’’ He said with a smirk, making Max sigh softly. The Dutchman really had no energy to deal with Charles’ jealousy issues as well right now. He kissed Charles back, but slipped out of bed after that. ‘’I’m gonna have a quick shower because we had sex last night, why don’t you go ahead and fix us all some breakfast?’’ He suggested.</p><p>He didn’t get much pushback from Charles, and so Max quickly went to shower to get his thoughts in a row. This whole jealousy thing, though it made for extremely hot sex, was not something that he’d at all be comfortable with in the long term. He was still very much planning on being best friends with Dan, and he couldn’t have Charles worrying whether he was fucking the Aussie every single minute they spent together. They would have to talk about this after Lando left for England again. </p><p>Max had a relatively quick shower, really just to clean himself up. Afterwards, he brushed his teeth, got dressed and made himself look at least semi-presentable, before he finally left the bedroom to go and join his friend and boyfriend for breakfast. He found the pair of them in the kitchen, where Lando was just sitting at the breakfast bar, rather than actually doing anything, while Charles appeared to be making food. ‘’What happened to getting some food yourself?’’ He asked, giving Lando a pat on his shoulder in greeting as he made his way over to the fridge to get some juice to start off with.</p><p>‘’Well I had started boiling some eggs, but then Charles came in and started mumbling something about me burning the building down and took over before I could say anything.’’ Lando replied with a bit of a shrug. Max sipped from his juice as he looked at his very handsome boyfriend cooking their food and looked back at Lando when the Brit spoke up again. ‘’My flight leaves at one, so I’ll be out of your hair and you can go back to whatever the hell it is you did in that bedroom.’’</p><p>Max instantly started blushing, while he could hear Charles just quietly chuckling next to him. ‘’I didn’t think you could hear that…’’ The Dutchman excused himself, making Lando snort. ‘’Mate, I think I would’ve heard you if I were back home. You were that loud.’’ He exaggerated, but at least it made Max blush more, which seemed to be his goal. </p><p>‘’You didn’t have to leave though.’’ Charles said as he finally turned around and placed three filled plates on the breakfast bar. He kissed Max’s cheek, before he sat down and started eating. ‘’I know, but yeah…I don’t want to disturb your relationship by being here and I’m gonna hang out with Carlos so…it’s better this way.’’ Lando replied with a bit of a smile. Max and Charles instantly shared a look, but neither of them decided to really get more into it for the time being. Instead, they just all ate their breakfast together.</p><p>Max and Charles had gotten up pretty late, so after hanging out a little longer together, it was finally ready for Lando to head out. Max offered to take him to the airport, but Lando had come over in a rental car, and so he would just drive back over on his own. He hugged his friends goodbye and finally left, but only after reassuring Max multiple times that were he to actually get it on with Carlos, he would call, since this would be the only time in living memory that Max would actually be interested in one of Lando’s pulls.</p><p>Once the Brit had left, Max went to the couch to relax a little for a moment. Being around Lando’s excitement all day tired him out a little, so he needed a bit of a moment. It was short-lived though, because Charles was by his side soon after, wrapping his arms around his waist and pulling him in close. ‘’There we are. Now I have you all to myself again.’’ The Monegasque said, smiling to himself as he placed gentle kisses in Max’s neck. </p><p>With a bit of a sigh, Max decided that this was probably the time to start the discussion that he was very much not looking forward to having. ‘’Charles…can we talk?’’ He asked quietly. He felt his boyfriend immediately tensing around him and was quick then to place a kiss on his cheek. ‘’Not in that kind of way. Just…there is something serious that we need to talk about.’’ He felt his boyfriend relax ever so slightly, and turned around a little in his arms so that he could meet Charles’ gaze. </p><p>‘’You, Charles Leclerc, have a bit of a jealousy problem.’’ Max said seriously. ‘’And it’s not that I don’t think that it’s super fucking hot, because it is, but I don’t want it to become an issue in our relationship. Like you freaking out if I wanna spend an evening hanging out with Dan or something.’’ Charles just frowned in return and cocked his head a little as he stared into Max’s eyes. ‘’Why would you go and spend an evening with Dan? You have me.’’ He replied.</p><p>In response, Max groaned and let his eyes fall closed for a moment as he processed how Charles managed to get jealous in a talk about him having a jealousy problem. ‘’Charlie…this is exactly the issue.’’ He said, letting out a long and deep sigh before he continued to speak. ‘’Be honest with me. Is the only reason that you fucked me the way that you did last night because you knew that Lando would be able to hear?’’</p><p>He stared his boyfriend down then, and Charles didn’t even look embarrassed in the slightest as he shrugged and finally nodded. ‘’Yeah. You’re mine and it can’t hurt for him to hear and know that.’’ He told Max. The Dutchman could almost feel his jaw dropping at that casual answer and was very close to punching his boyfriend in the face. ‘’Seriously? Fucking seriously?’’ He asked, leaving Charles’ embrace and getting up from the couch.</p><p>He took a deep breath to stop himself from starting to yell at Charles then and looked down at him. ‘’I can’t fucking believe you. That is…that is so not fucking okay that I don’t even know where to begin!’’ Charles just looked confused as Max went off on him, seemingly not really understanding. ‘’I don’t understand why you’re getting so worked up over this? You are mine, right? Then you shouldn’t be opposed to it.’’</p><p>‘’Jesus fucking Christ, Charles. That is not the point here!. Not in the slightest. You just can’t do things like this and if you don’t understand that I don’t know how we can even be together.’’ Charles’ frown only got deeper then, and he stared back at Max. ‘’Are you breaking up with me right now?’’ He asked the Dutchman, who was about to answer when Charles’ phone started to ring. He saw his manager’s name-ID show up and instantly answered, which only pissed off Max more. You don’t just pause an argument to answer a phone call. Only if you didn’t care enough, apparently.</p><p>Charles started just rattling a whole lot of Italian then, and Max finally just crossed his arms, still looking down at Charles and waiting for him to finally finish. When the Monegasque did, his words nearly made Max explode. ‘’I have to go. I forgot I have this Armani shoot in Milan and they’re picking me up in an hour so I need to go home and get ready.’’ He got up then and kissed Max, seemingly like absolutely nothing had just happened or like he was purposefully ignoring it.</p><p>Max instantly pushed Charles away and frowned deeply at him. ‘’Seriously? You’re leaving? Right in the middle of our fucking argument?’’ He demanded. ‘’I’m not fucking finished. What time are you back?’’ The frown was back on Charles’ face then as he answered. ‘’I’m not going to do this now, Max. The shoot is for 2 days. I get back tomorrow evening and you can come to my place if you want to yell at me some more.’’ He left then, without even saying as much as goodbye, and Max was flabbergasted.</p><p>He was the wronged party here, not Charles. That man didn’t have the right to be pissed off at him, it should be the other way around! But…then why did he feel guilty about fighting with him in the first place…? Fuck, he was just so far gone for Charles, and it was really starting to become problematic. Max spent the rest of the day alone. He did a long workout to empty his thoughts from wanting to punch anyone, mostly Charles, in the face and finished the day by binge-watching some dumb Netflix show in bed all alone by himself, without a boyfriend to hold him or to cuddle. Ugh.</p><p>He hadn’t received a single text from Charles all day long, and so when his phone started to ring well after midnight, he instantly got butterflies in his stomach again. After first cursing at himself for being such a crushing high-schooler, he finally picked up the phone, his heart sinking a little when he saw that it was Lando calling him. ‘’Hey mate, what’s up? Got home safe?’’ He asked with a bit of a sigh.</p><p>‘’Shut up.’’ Lando whisper-yelled in return. ‘’I need your help. I…fuck, it happened again, Max.’’ Max had been getting a little tired up until then, but whatever this was, it got him back awake in an instant. He sat up a little more against the headboard and cleared his throat before he answered. ‘’What happened, are you alright? Do I need to call someone?’’</p><p>In return, he first got a bit of a groan, like Lando was hesitating a little to share. When he finally did, Max instantly understood why. ‘’Yeah, I’m fine. I just…I had sex with Carlos again. And I’m still at his place. And I’m hiding and naked in the bathroom and I think he fell asleep and I don’t know if I should stay in his bed until morning or just leave and I need your help, Max.’’ Lando ranted, sounding a little panicked.</p><p>‘’Oh…’’ Was the first thing Max managed to say after processing all of that information. ‘’That’s…okay.’’ He added, blinking a few times to make sure that he wasn’t actually having a very weird dream. ‘’Was it good?’’ He didn’t know why he asked. Probably because it just felt natural, and he was still processing that this was even happening.</p><p>‘’Yes it was good.’’ Lando nonetheless instantly answered. ‘’Probably the best sex I’ve ever had, but that’s not the point, Max! What do I do?’’ Max finally hummed a little and realized that he should actually be giving Lando some advice here. ‘’Well, I’d say to just do what you want. If the sex was great, and if you really like him a lot, then why the fuck would you not want to spend a night sleeping in his arms?’’</p><p>It took a little while before he got a long sigh as an answer, and even longer before Lando finally put his fears into words. ‘’Because it could get awkward…or he could decide he doesn’t like me in the morning and kicks me out…’’ Max had never really heard his friend being this fragile before, and he felt a little heartbroken for the Brit. ‘’Well,’’ Max started to say with a small smile on his face. ‘’As someone very wise once told me: Do you like him enough and are you brave enough to risk getting hurt?’’ </p><p>It stayed quiet on the other end for such a long time that Max had started to worry a little bit if the connection had been lost. Finally though, the answer came. ‘’Yes, I think so.’’</p>
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<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Stewing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>New chapter y'all! Took me a few days to find the inspiration to write, but when I did I wrote it in pretty much record time. Inspiration is a weird thing :P</p><p>I hope you all enjoy reading! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After spending a couple of minutes reassuring Lando that he really was taking the right decision by spending the night with Carlos, the Brit was finally relaxed enough again to join the Spaniard in bed once more. They ended their call soon after and Max smiled a little to himself as he put his phone away and finally got ready to sleep. He felt happy for Lando that he was taking a risk, that he was going for what he wanted, but when he reached out and felt the empty space in bed next to him, his smile faded again. </p><p>An entire day of not hearing from Charles. Not a single call or text or anything since he’d left for Milan after their argument earlier that day. He stared at the ceiling for a little while then, sighing deeply from time to time and seriously considering just giving in and contacting his boyfriend himself, because he just really missed him and hearing his dumb, beautiful, sweet accent. In the end, he didn’t. He was still the wronged party here, and he decided that it was Charles who should come and make things right. Not him.</p><p>He went to sleep after that, and even though it came to him fairly easily, it was a short, fairly restless night all in all. Max finally gave up on sleeping all together at about 7.30am and went to take a long, hot shower to just relax and wash all of his worries away. Which, of course, it did not do. He wasn’t Charles after all. Long showers just weren’t really his thing. So he got out pretty quickly, restless as he still felt, and settled on making some elaborate breakfast with poached eggs that he was inevitably going to ruin.</p><p>To his own absolute shock and surprise, he didn’t. He had made toast with avocado and poached eggs, and it looked incredible, if he were to say so himself. He probably missed his calling as a master chef of breakfast food. He sat down at the bar and was about to dig into his delicious breakfast, when his phone went off again. Immediately seeing that it was once again Lando calling, Max groaned a little, but finally did put his cutlery down so he could answer his friend who was probably freaking out again.</p><p>‘’Hey, mate. What’s up?’’ Max asked as he picked up. The background noise was fairly loud as he answered the phone, and in a split second Max figured out that Lando was probably back in his car to drive home. ‘’Heeeey Maxy!’’ Lando answered happily, which instantly cheered Max up a little. Apparently the night had gone well then. ‘’I just wanted to call and update you on things cause suddenly you seem very interested in my pulls!’’ The Brit teased with a bit of a happy giggle afterwards.</p><p>Max had a fond smile on his face himself, and hummed softly. ‘’I am interested on the non-sexual details of this one single pull of yours, yes.’’ He answered honestly. ‘’Well I got back into bed with him like you said and we cuddled and I slept like an absolutely baby first of all.’’ Lando told his friend. ‘’Why have you never told me how amazing it is to have a hot, naked, Mediterranean man hold you through the night?’’ He demanded to know, making Max chuckle.</p><p>‘’Because I’ve only found that one out for myself a couple of weeks ago, mate. And I wasn’t about to shout from the rooftops that I’m fucking Charles, other than you apparently.’’ Max replied, still smiling. He was happy that Lando had had a good night, but by the sound of things, the Brit wasn’t at all done with his story yet. ‘’So then these guys who are apparently building a house or whatever down the street woke us up at about seven aaaaaand we had a round two before Carlos made us breakfast and I had to leave to go and do sim work. And that’s where I’m heading now.’’</p><p>‘’I…wow that’s a lot.’’ Max said, blinking a few times as he processed all of the things Lando had just told him in a very short amount of time. ‘’Did you manage to talk to Carlos? About any future things?’’ He asked gently, still not wanting to really push his friend on anything. ‘’Oh, yeah right!’’ Lando answered quickly. ‘’He did ask me when I was free for an actual proper date and so we have that planned for later in the week now.’’ He told Max, the grin coming through in his voice.</p><p>‘’That’s so great, mate! I’m really happy for you!’’ Max answered excitedly then. He was a bit relieved to be honest. Lando seemed all bubbly and happy all the time, but if he was just a plaything for Carlos, Max feared it would break his heart. He was happy to find that that didn’t seem to be the case. ‘’What are you going to do?’’ He asked curiously.</p><p>‘’Well we’re just gonna have a home cooked meal and watch a movie since it probably isn’t a good idea for us to head out into the world on a date yet…’’ Lando answered. ‘’But it’s fine. That way I can be close to him and kiss or blow him whenever I want to.’’ Max groaned a little at the images Lando was putting in his head and sighed. ‘’No details Lando, please.’’ He repeated once again. ‘’Fine, fine. Hey, thanks for talking, but I gotta hang. I’m about to get to the factory.’’ Lando said.</p><p>They ended their call after that, and Max just chuckled for a little while to himself, before he finally dug into his breakfast. The eggs had sadly gone a little cold, but they were tasty nonetheless. Afterwards, his trainer sent him his workout schedule for the day, and he spent about two hours on those. Usually, this was his release. Working out helped like nothing else to clear Max’s mind. Not today though. He checked his phone a couple of times when he had a small break, and only got more pissed off every single time his stupid phone still did not show a message or missed call from Charles.</p><p>It was after lunchtime then, and when he still hadn’t heard anything from his boyfriend, that Max made a decision. He was still not going to be the first to text or call, but he was going to Charles’ apartment later that day to tell him just how he felt. Or yell it. He wasn’t sure yet. It all really depended on how handsome and distracting Charles would be looking that evening. If only he could remember the time that Charles had said he’d be back. It was…eight…right…? Yes. Definitely eight, he was sure of it.</p><p>Given that he had about zero other things to do that day besides waiting for Charles to come back, and it wasn’t like he was voluntarily going to do sponsor activities or whatever, he ended up just playing some videogames with friends for a couple of hours. Mindlessly shooting people in Call of Duty always helped to clear his mind a little, and it allowed him to scream at people a couple times too. Letting off some steam never hurt anyone.</p><p>It was about eight in the evening when Max finally took the elevator down to the garage and took his car to drive the short distance to Charles’ building. Given that he didn’t have access to the garage of Charles’ building, he had to park outside. Thankfully, getting in the building itself wasn’t much of a problem. One of the main perks of being famous was that the security guard recognised him and let him into the building without too much of a fuss. </p><p>Max took the elevator upstairs and finally knocked on Charles’ door, all the things he wanted to say and or yell at his boyfriend going through his mind. When however after about 2 minutes he still didn’t hear anything happening behind the door, Max was starting to get a little pissed. He pounded the door again, a bit harder this time. ‘’Charles!’’ He called out. ‘’Open the door!’’ Still, there was absolutely no response. </p><p>Apparently, despite saying otherwise, mister ‘I’m gonna put our argument on hold because I have to go and be a super model in Milan now’ still wasn’t actually home. Getting seriously pissed off by now, Max finally just sat down against the door, grumbling and cursing at Charles under his breath as he decided to just wait it out and yell at him later. It took almost an entire hour of waiting, but finally the elevator pinged and out walked Charles Leclerc, happily humming to himself, seemingly without a care in the world. </p><p>However, he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his boyfriend slumped down against the door and started to frown. ‘’Maxy…? What are you doing here…?’’ He asked, looking just very confused. Max finally got up from the spot he had been angrily stewing in for about an hour then. His expression spoke volumes about how angry he was and he spoke to Charles nearly in a growl. ‘’Where the fuck were you? You told me you’d be home at eight! I’ve been waiting here for an hour!’’ He hadn’t really even noticed how good Charles was looking in the Armani suit he had apparently been gifted, or see all the goodie bags the man was carrying with him.</p><p>Charles just blinked a few times as he went through his memories and finally shook his head. ‘’No…I said I’d be home tonight. I don’t think I ever said when…I was out for dinner with my agent…You could’ve just texted me…’’ That was the point that Max nearly snapped. ‘’I should’ve texted YOU?!’’ He demanded angrily. ‘’For fuck’s sake Charles, I have been waiting to hear from you for two days! No call, no text, NOTHING! It’s like you don’t even care!’’</p><p>‘’I don’t care? What the hell are you even saying? Of course I care, Max! I care a lot!’’ Charles replied. He had bene pretty relaxed before, but getting accused of not caring about their relationship was getting to him. ‘’Just…let’s talk about this inside.’’ He said, sighing deeply. He put the bags down for the moment to open the door, before he just walked inside and dropped all of his things in the hallway. </p><p>Max was about to continue their argument as soon as the door closed behind him, but Charles just walked away from him to the kitchen, coming back soon after with a bottle of water, which he handed to his boyfriend. ‘’You must be thirsty if you waited for me for an hour.’’ He explained, and Max’s heart very nearly melted at just this sweet gesture of Charles taking care of him. Nonetheless though, he was still very much in the mood to argue, and so he did just that.</p><p>He took a sip of water first, but then continued. ‘’Why didn’t you text me, Charles? I have been waiting for 2 days to hear something, anything from you. But there was just…nothing.’’ Max asked, though he was yelling a lot less than before. Charles just shrugged a little in return. ‘’I made you angry before. I thought you wanted some space and I didn’t want to make you angry again over the phone, so I didn’t say anything until I got home.’’ He explained.</p><p>‘’You…Are you accusing me of being irritable?’’ Max demanded then, crossing his arms a little as he frowned over at his boyfriend. Charles, in what was probably not one of his best ever moves, started chuckling in response, and finally nodded. ‘’I mean…you are…’’ He finally told Max, who in response slammed his water bottle down onto the hallway cabinet. ‘’Fuck. You.’’ He told Charles. ‘’We have a fight about how I don’t like the way you’re treating me, you ignore me for days and then you insult me? Fuck you, Leclerc.’’</p><p>He turned around then, leaving the apartment and going home to sulk in his own misery. Just before he opened the door though, a pair of familiar arms wrapped themselves around his waist and pulled him in to Charles’ chest. ‘’Calm down, Maxy. I didn’t meant to make you angry again.’’ The Monegasque said. Max fought him for a moment, tried to get out of Charles’ hold, but much to his annoyance, the way he was being held meant that he couldn’t really do much if he didn’t want to hurt his boyfriend in the process, and so he finally gave in.</p><p>‘’You’re really pretty when you’re mad.’’ Charles whispered into his ear then, and Max absolutely hated himself for the shiver that went through his entire body, and the stirring he could already feel down below. ‘’How about I show you how much I care, and then you can spend the night in my arms, and then tomorrow morning I’ll shower you with the gifts that I brought you from Milan?’’ Charles suggested then. Max fought it. He really fought it with every fiber of his being, but he couldn’t stop his head from nodding or the shaky ‘’Please.’’ that came out of his mouth.</p><p>The sex was completely different than it usually was. Rather than fuck Max like a fun plaything, Charles was sweet, soft and gentle, making sure his boyfriend would understand just how much he cared for him. He took the both of them to the bedroom and undressed them, before he started to pretty much worship Max’s entire body, the touches of Charles’ fingers and lips driving the man crazy. When he finally fucked his boyfriend, Charles went almost teasingly slow, stopping time and again just to kiss Max and tell him how gorgeous he looked for him.</p><p>When they both finished and Charles pulled out, the Monegasque made out with Max for a little while first, relaxing him before he left the bed to go and get something to clean him up with. When it was all done, Charles got back into bed with his boyfriend and placed a kiss on his temple as he held him close. ‘’Don’t you ever say again that I don’t care about you. Or us.’’ He said quietly. Max hid his face in Charles’ chest and hummed softly in response. ‘’Sorry.’’ He mumbled. ‘’I know you do.’’ He added quietly.</p><p>It wasn’t long after that Charles’ eyes started to fall shut, and the Monegasque fell asleep with his arms still comfortably wrapped around Max. The Dutchman sighed softly. He knew how those modelling days worked. Knew how early Charles’ had been up that morning and how tiring the day had been, but he still had wanted to talk a little more before they ended their night together. Now though, his mind was free to start thinking again, and that didn’t help.</p><p>Why had he just been the one to apologize? He hadn’t actually been in the wrong at all. It had been a completely logical conclusion that he’d drawn, and he had once again let this manipulative, sexy, handsome, gorgeous little shit make him think that he was the bad guy. Why didn’t his brain work normally around Charles? Why couldn’t he just be his normal, confident self? Why did he allow Charles to just bribe him with sex every single time he got angry at him?</p><p>He didn’t know why, but he knew one thing for sure. This relationship, the way it was currently heading, couldn’t last. And it scared him.</p>
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<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Trust</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>All aboard the pain train.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Max could not sleep, no matter how hard he tried. As comfortable as he was in Charles’ arms, and as beautiful as the Monegasque looked while he slept on peacefully, he just couldn’t. His mind was racing, too full of thoughts about his and Charles’ relationship. He was sure he had been manipulated. Again. For the second time in two days, Charles had just cut him off mid-argument, with sex rather than leaving this time, and he felt like there was nothing that he could do about it. He’d just been dumbfounded both times, and twice had forgiven his boyfriend almost instantly, somehow turning it around so that it was his own fault instead of Charles’. Only afterwards, when there wasn’t really much he could do anymore did he really start pondering it. </p><p>He still didn’t really understand how it could happen so easily. He was Max Verstappen. Being confident and stubborn about basically everything was his entire brand. So why wasn’t he like that around Charles? Why did he turn into a lovesick idiot who could barely put together a coherent thought at all? He felt guilty for even considering it, but Max thought back on the interview that he’d been so worried about a few days before. He’d accused Charles of manipulating him then, and he suddenly wasn’t so sure to what extent that he believed his boyfriend anymore. If he could trust Charles at all. If this relationship, if it was built on lies and manipulation, could ever last.</p><p>The thoughts stewed in his head for hours on end, getting worse and worse over time until finally, filled with doubts and uncertainty, Max just couldn’t take it anymore. He slowly, gently, without waking him up, removed Charles’ arms from his waist and slipped out of bed. The Monegasque seemed to protest for a moment, even in his sleep, but eventually gave up when Max just kept going. He put on some underwear and walked out of the bedroom, closing the door behind, before he made his way over to the couch and sat down with his head in his hands. </p><p>He could feel his breathing getting quicker, shallower, knew that he was starting to panic. He needed to get these thoughts out of his head. He knew that Charles wasn’t evil,  that he couldn’t really be manipulating him, not on purpose, that their love and relationship was real, he was just….Max needed to talk to someone, anyone. He glanced at the clock and winced, seeing it was about three in the morning. Nobody would be up at this hour, nobody he could call and who could talk him down from the state he was in. Unless…maybe…</p><p>Max had taken his phone along with him when he had left the bedroom just then, and he didn’t need to scroll down far until he finally found the number he was looking for. It rang…once…twice…and Max let out a deep sigh of relief when he could finally hear the call being answered. ‘’Max? Why are you awake? It’s like three in the morning over there. Is something wrong?’’ Lando asked, a bit of worry audible in his voice as he spoke. ‘’I…fuck Lando, I don’t know anymore.’’ Max said, his voice pretty much breaking on the last word as even his last wall came down.</p><p>He had to take a deep breath then, and it trembled as he released it. ‘’I don’t know how long I can keep going like this…How long I can be with Charles if it costs me my sanity.’’ Max couldn’t remember a time when he’d ever felt like this. He felt scared more than anything. He knew damn well that he was in love with Charles, having fallen probably harder than he had ever fallen for anyone in his life. And so the thought that Charles could be manipulating him every single time they were together, and he would fall for it so easily just as many times, was absolutely terrifying. It was not the basis of a healthy relationship. It was not the basis for anything real. A relationship built on lies.</p><p>Lando was silent for a moment after Max’s words, like he had a bit of trouble just processing what the hell was even happening on the other side of the call. ‘’I…okay, calm down, Max.’’ He finally answered, sounding a bit unsure of himself. ‘’Why don’t you try and tell me what happened?’’ he suggested in the hope of at least somewhat understanding what Max was on about, which was difficult to do in the state the Dutchman was in.</p><p>Max was silent for a moment then as he tried to find his words and put them in the mostly correct order, before he finally started to speak. ‘’I just don’t know what’s happening anymore, Lando. I’m scared. I…I think that I love Charles, but things just feel like they’re falling apart. I feel like he’s constantly manipulating me, and I don’t know why I can’t see it until it’s already happened….I don’t know what to trust, what’s fake or real, if I’m being taken advantage of or not…’’ Max took another deep breath then and closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to settle down. </p><p>‘’Just today I was so angry that I wanted to leave, but…he just turned into this sweet, loving boyfriend and I stayed and we had sex and only when he fell asleep did I realize that I ended up apologizing to him for overreacting. I just don’t act like myself around him anymore and I don’t know what to do…’’ Max said. He could feel his cheeks getting a little wet, but he wiped the tears away immediately. He wasn’t crying. He was stronger than that. Stronger than the painful ache he was feeling in his heart.</p><p>Max could hear a sigh on the other side, and he knew he was being unfair. He shouldn’t be putting all of this on Lando, especially not at three in the fucking morning. ‘’Is he hurting you?’’ Lando asked, sounding dead serious, and the tone Lando was using really shocked Max. He blinked a few times, before he quickly shook his head. ‘’N-no…no. He would never, Lando. You know that.’’ He assured his friend, who did let out a bit of a relieved breath. ‘’I know, I know, but I just had to be sure.’’ Lando replied with another sigh.</p><p>‘’Look, Maxy, I don’t really know what to tell you. If you genuinely feel like this relationship isn’t healthy for you, then you have to get out. You can always come here if you don’t want to be on your own, but you can’t stay like this. It’s not good for you.’’ Lando added. It made Max nod softly, and he swallowed thickly. ‘’I tried talking to him and it just didn’t work. He cut me off and left yesterday and then he distracted me again today when I tried to. I…I think I really might have to break up with him.’’</p><p>It pained Max to even say it, and he could barely stand the thought. He didn’t want to break up with Charles. If he could help it, he’d prefer to spend the rest of his life with the man. But he wasn’t sure he really had a choice. He’d never felt this emotionally unstable, and something had to be done. Preferably with Charles in his life, as his boyfriend, but without him if need be. He just needed to be able to trust him.</p><p>He was only pulled out of his own thoughts when he suddenly heard a voice behind him, speaking in a by now incredibly familiar French accent. ‘’You want to break up with me…?’’ Charles asked quietly. As soon as he heard his boyfriend’s voice, Max, in a moment of panic, instantly hung up his call and dropped the phone, with the device falling onto the couch. His head shot around, and he stared at the Monegasque with wide, shocked eyes. ‘’Charles…I…’’ He started, before his voice just stopped working all together.</p><p>He stared at Charles with his eyes wide open, and the Monegasque slowly walked over to his boyfriend. ‘’Maxy…what’s going on? Why are you here? Who are you talking to? Why aren’t you in bed?’’ He asked quietly. He could see in how much distress his boyfriend was, and Charles slowly sat down next to Max, still frowning deeply at him. ‘’Do you really want to break up with me?’’ He asked again, when Max didn’t answer a single one of his questions.</p><p>Max finally just closed his eyes, unable really to even look at Charles. ‘’I don’t know…’’ he said quietly, the words causing an ache in his heart as he said them. ‘’I just don’t know, Charles. You manipulate me, you don’t listen, you don’t care how I feel. I don’t know how that’s the basis for a healthy relationship, no matter how much I care about you and want to be with you.’’ He told the man, swallowing thickly as he finally opened his eyes just to look down at his hands as they dug into his knees.</p><p>‘’What the hell are you talking about?’’ Charles demanded then, sounding more angry than anything else. ‘’I don’t manipulate you, where the hell is this coming from?!’’ He waited for an answer, but when it didn’t come, he really only got more worked up. ‘’Max, fucking look at me! What the hell is this? What are you doing? Of course I care about you! Is this some sort of sick joke that I’m not understanding? Max?!’’ When he got a headshake from Max in return, Charles got up, staring down at his boyfriend in shock and disbelief.</p><p>‘’What do you want to do then? Do you really want to break up with me because you still cannot get over the interview that I did fucking weeks ago? I said sorry more times than I can count. I apologized over and over again. I explained everything to you and begged for your forgiveness what more can you possible want from me?!’’ Charles said, his voice now raised enough to the point where he started shouting towards the end.</p><p>‘’I DON’T KNOW!’’ Max finally replied. His cheeks were tear-stained when he looked up at Charles, and he shook his head. ‘’I don’t know…’’ He repeated quietly. ‘’I just don’t think I can do this anymore. Not like this… Not when I feel like I can’t trust you completely.’’ Charles just continued to stare at Max, before he balled his fists and let out a groan of frustration. He started shaking his head then, just staring ahead down the hall for a moment, before he looked back down at Max. ‘’I love you. I fucking love you and if you cannot see that and don’t think that’s it’s real then that’s not on me, Max. That’s on you.’’</p><p>‘’Maybe it is…’’ Max said quietly. He finally got up from the couch then and hugged Charles tightly, giving him a kiss on the cheek as he held the Monegasque close. ‘’Charles…I love you, too.’’ He said quietly, finally admitting it out loud to himself and his boyfriend, before he let out a small whimper. ‘’And I’m sorry, but….I just can’t do this anymore.’’ He had felt Charles relaxing in his arms as he told the man that he loved him back, but the devastation on the Monegasque’s face was obvious as Max pulled away. </p><p>‘’I’m sorry…’’ Max said again, before he turned around and hurried back to the bedroom, where he started putting his clothes on. He couldn’t hear any sound coming after him, and he figured Charles was still working through the shock of his words, god knows Max was as well. When he was finally dressed, he walked back out into the living room, where Charles was still standing in the same spot, looking almost as devastated as Max felt.</p><p>Charles started to shake his head then, and he took a deep breath as he looked into Max’s eyes. ‘’You can’t really be doing this. Max, I love you. You can’t really be breaking up with me right now…’’ He told the Dutchman, who had to swallow down his tears. ‘’I’m sorry, Charles.’’ He said for what felt like the millionth time, before he finally just turned around and left the apartment.</p><p>As he closed the door behind him, Max could hear a loud shattering behind him, as if someone had thrown a glass or a vase against a wall in anger. After that, it was silence, and he found himself all alone, and with no idea of where to go. In a daze, went back downstairs and found himself sitting back in his car after a few minutes. </p><p>He didn’t want to go home. He couldn’t go home. Being alone right now was definitely not something that he wanted to do. So he did what usually helped when he was feeling overwhelmed and needed to put things into perspective: He drove. He drove around Monaco and the French country for hours on end, until the sun started to rise again in the sky. Still, it didn’t help.</p><p>Max still felt like he couldn’t be alone, like he needed someone to talk to and who could make sure that he wouldn’t be heading down a very bad downward spiral. Really, there was only one person he could think of who he could go and see. Someone who hopefully wouldn’t judge him and just be supportive no matter how stupid he might have been.</p><p>So, genuinely not knowing where in god’s name he had ended up, Max put the address in his navigation system and put the car in the right direction, hoping he’d find some peace at his destination.</p><p>***</p><p>As he woke up, he stretched out his tired limbs and let out a big yawn as he spent a few minutes just comfortably starfishing in his bed. He knew there’d be an intensive cardio training later today, so he wanted to enjoy his relaxation and non-aching limbs for as long as he could. He spent about fifteen glorious minutes longer in bed, before he finally got out and made his way to the bathroom.</p><p>After taking a shower, brushing his teeth, making himself look gorgeous and admiring his, if he said so himself, amazing body, he got dressed and went over to the kitchen, drinking some coffee and eating a breakfast that he managed to make just the right amount of healthy and delicious. He spent a little time reading the news and going through the socials after breakfast, before he decided that it was time for his training programme. </p><p>He changed into his training clothes, found his most comfortable running shoes, and finally made his way back over to the front door. When he opened it, he nearly had a heart attack, seeing his best friend looking like absolute hell, and about to ring the doorbell. ‘’Maxy?! What…what the hell happened to you, what the fuck are you doing here, mate?’’ He asked, shocked with the way his friend was looking more than anything.</p><p>‘’I-I broke up with Charles. I don’t think I can be alone right now. Please Dan, help me.’’</p>
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<a name="section0017"><h2>17. What now?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A bit of a slower chapter, but then again, we need to bring Dan up to speed and poor little Maxy needs to figure out his feelings &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Max was about to ring the doorbell to Daniel’s apartment when the door suddenly opened. He was startled for a moment, and swallowed thickly as his friend looked at him. He knew he had to look like absolute hell, but he just didn’t really care anymore about any of that, he just needed someone to take care of him for now, while he figured things out. ‘’Maxy?! What…what the hell happened to you? What the fuck are you doing here, mate?’’ Daniel asked, looking shocked at his friend.</p><p>Max managed to steel himself for a moment, at least enough to at least get the words out before he broke. ‘’I-I broke up with Charles. I don’t think I can be alone right now. Please Dan, help me.’’ As the last words left his mouth, Max could feel his cheeks getting wet again, and he turned his head away a little, cursing at himself for being this weak yet again.</p><p>The next thing he felt was a pair of familiar arms being wrapped around him, and the warmth of Daniel as he was held close. Max instantly nuzzled his face into the Aussie’s neck, crying into him for a minute or two. ‘’Come on then, let’s go inside.’’ The Australian told him then, before he was gently pulled into the apartment and taken over to the couch, where they could sit down together. ‘’Maxy…’’ Daniel finally said, looking incredibly distressed when Max finally looked up to meet his eyes.</p><p>‘’Did you just say that you broke up with Charles…?’’ Daniel looked confused by this point as well as distressed, and the look on his face would’ve been funny to Max if it wasn’t all so fucking tragic. He wiped his tears away for the time being and took a deep breath to try and calm his senses a little. ‘’Yeah…we uhm…we got together a few days ago, but I…I just couldn’t take it anymore.’’ He finally managed to tell Daniel, who really only looked more confused as Max spoke.</p><p>‘’When did this happen? And…what do you mean you couldn’t take it anymore? He didn’t hurt you, did he?’’ Daniel asked, his concerned look turning into more of a frown now as he quickly looked his best friend up and down to check for any marks. Max was quick to shook his head. He even felt a pang of guilt for making people think that Charles was like that. Dan was the second person who had asked now, after Lando. ‘’No, it’s not like that at all, he just…he’s being manipulative, jealous, he doesn’t listen and it just drove me insane to stay in there. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, like I somehow wasn’t able to be myself around him and I just needed to get out of there as fast as I could.’’</p><p>Daniel just nodded gently in return and pulled Max in a little closer again, rubbing his shoulder as he held his friend close. ‘’I see…’’ He said quietly. He didn’t really want to push Max any further, not when he was in this state at least. ‘’You can stay here for as long as you like, Maxy. As long as need be.’’ He placed a kiss on Max’s temple then and got up, going over to the kitchen and coming back with some water. </p><p>‘’Here, drink this. You look you’re about to fall over.’’ Daniel said and sighed softly. He hadn’t gotten an answer to the question when he’d asked before, so he decided on doing so again. ‘’Maxy, when did this happen? You look like you haven’t slept in days.’’ Max winced as the words came from Daniel and he sighed a little. ‘’Some hours ago…I haven’t slept all night actually.’’ He finally admitted.</p><p>Daniel sighed then, and it sounded to Max like he was incredibly disappointed in him. ‘’Come on then. Let’s get you to bed so you can sleep. We can talk more when you have a clearer head.’’ He gently got his friend up from the couch and took him over to the bedroom. He helped Max to get undressed, it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen any of it before, but when he went to help his friend to lie down, Max pulled him along. ‘’Can you stay…please? Just for falling asleep?’’</p><p>Max really did not want to beg, but he really needed Daniel to stay with him more than anything right then. Almost more than he missed Charles by his side, to hold him and comfort him. Thankfully, Daniel instantly nodded and held Max close, pressing a kiss to his head. ‘’Alright, mate. I’ll stay with you. Love you.’’ He told the Dutchman, who could finally smile a little again as he closed his eyes. ‘’Love you too.’’ He replied quietly, before he finally fell asleep.</p><p>When Max woke up what he assumed was a couple of hours later, he was alone. He had to orientate himself for a moment, given that this was a strange bed and he didn’t recognize the decoration on the walls, before he realized what had happened in the last 24 hours. He rubbed at his eyes for a little while, before he finally stumbled into the en-suite bathroom. He splashed some cold water in his face to wake himself up a little more, before Max finally dared to look at himself in the mirror.</p><p>He nearly gasped at what he saw. He looked as white as a sheet, with bags under his eyes and his eyes slightly reddened from crying so much earlier. Max quickly closed his eyes again then, taking a few deep breaths to still himself before he decided to go and see Daniel.</p><p>He left the bathroom and walked out of the guest room he’d slept in, and was instantly met by the soothing smell of a grilled cheese sandwich. ‘’Heeeeey, goodmorning sleepyhead.’’ Daniel greeted happily when Max walked into view. ‘’I’m just making you something to eat, was plannin’ on bringing it over if you were still asleep.’’ He smiled a bright smile at his friend, looking a lot more relaxed than when Max had first arrived.</p><p>‘’You look a lot better than you did a couple hours ago.’’ Dan told Max, and the Dutchman couldn’t help but wince. If this was better, how bad just had it been before…? He swallowed thickly then and walked over to Daniel, leaning against the countertop next to him. ‘’Thanks, mate.’’ He said with a small smile. ‘’It’s so good to know that I have you to lean on.’’</p><p>Dan patted Max’s shoulder for a moment, before he put the sandwich on a plate and grabbed some cutlery. ‘’Anytime, babe. Come on then, sit down and eat and we can talk a little.’’ He told his friend. He walked over to the table himself, and Max easily followed along. He still didn’t feel super hungry, but he had to admit that that sandwich smelled really good…</p><p>He started to eat as soon as he sat down, and Daniel looked on with a pleased smile on his face. ‘’So…do you feel well enough to answer some of my many, many questions about what the fuck happened?’’ The Aussie asked Max, who shrugged a little. ‘’I mean…now is as good a time as any, right? Might as well rip the Band-Aid off right now…’’</p><p>Daniel nodded softly. ‘’When did you and Charles get together? I mean I know you were being…casual, but for real?’’ Max took another bite of sandwich, chewing and swallowing it before he finally answered. ‘’I mean, if I’m honest…I think we got together as soon as we started fucking.’’ Max replied quietly. He wasn’t meeting Daniel’s eyes, was just looking down at his sandwich.</p><p>‘’What we were doing was labelled as casual, but we both knew it wasn’t. We spent entire days together. Cuddling, watching movies, making out, everything couples do together. And then after Bahrain, when we came back…after I’d been angry with him over that stupid interview….he apologized to me and I told him that I wanted to try being together, for real.’’ Max took a few pauses as he spoke, both to eat and to get his thoughts in a row. He finished his sandwich soon enough, but still refused to meet Daniel’s eyes, embarrassed as he felt.</p><p>‘’I knew Charles had a problem with jealousy. He would talk about you and me hanging out in a way that I didn’t like, but when Lando visited the other day, it got really bad. He…we were intimate, but in a way that made it sure that Lando would know, as sort of a claiming move from Charles’ side I think. I argued with him then, told him that that wasn’t okay in the slightest, but he just left because he had to go to Milan and didn’t contact me for 2 whole days.’’ Max closed his eyes for a second then, sighing deeply before he continued.</p><p>‘’When he finally came back and I tried to argue with him again, he cut me off again, turned into the sweetest, most loving boyfriend in the world and he seduced me into just having sex and dropping the subject. That was last night. And…I couldn’t sleep, just kept going over how he just manipulated me twice into dropping the argument. I realized that whatever I do, he just has me wrapped around his finger, can make me do whatever he wants in an instant, and I’ll just smile and do it. And….I realized that I had to get out of there, so I told him that and left…’’ Max hadn’t realized he had been crying again until the tears hit his hand. He tried to wipe the tears from his cheeks then, and let out the tiniest little sob as he did.</p><p>As he put his hand back down, Daniel gently took it in his own and caressed the skin. ‘’You’re okay now.’’ He said quietly. He placed a small kiss on Max’s hand then and gave his friend a reassuring smile when he finally looked up. ‘’You’re safe here, Maxy.’’ The Dutchman nodded softly then, and gave Daniel a tiny smile. ‘’I know...’’ He said quietly. ‘’Thank you.’’</p><p>Daniel waited patiently for Max to calm down a little more, before he sighed softly. ‘’I’m going to ask you a very tough question, and I want you to think long and hard on it before you answer me, okay?’’ Max nodded softly in response, before Dan continued. ‘’I can see how hard this is for you, and I think that’s because you really care about Charles a great deal. The question in the end then is…Do you love him?’’</p><p>Max always had an answer ready to every question. The only one that was ever really able to make him speechless was Charles. And, apparently, questions about the man in question. Max had opened his mouth to instantly answer Daniel, but he found that he couldn’t. Because he really wasn’t sure. He felt hurt. So incredibly hurt. He felt used, manipulated, like his trust had been cheated on. But on the other hand, his feelings for the Monegasque were just so incredibly strong. About 95% of the time, Charles was an incredible, loving, amazing boyfriend, and Max couldn’t wish for anyone better. It was just the 5% that hurt him more than anything in this world.</p><p>The more he considered it though, the more the 95% started to win out in his mind, until finally, he swallowed thickly and gently nodded in response to Daniel. ‘’I…I think I do…’’ He said quietly. A gentle smile appeared on Daniel’s face, and he placed another kiss on Max’s hand. ‘’I thought so.’’ He replied. ‘’So here’s what I’m planning on doing, and I’d like to hear from you what you think of it.’’ He told Max.</p><p>When the Dutchman nodded that he understood, he continued to speak. ‘’Today, and maybe tomorrow depending on how you’re feeling, we’re gonna spend the entire day together, relaxing and having fun and just generally not feeling bad. And then when you’re okay to stay by yourself for a little while, I will go over to Charles’ and talk to him, because I’m not gonna let my argument be stopped by kisses from a sexy Monegasque.’’ He told Max with a wink.</p><p>Max hummed softly in response to Daniel and looked a little confused at the Aussie. ‘’Why are you going over to Charles’? What do you want to talk about?’’ He asked, not really getting the point of it. ‘’Well obviously there are some issues in the way that Charles is acting that he’ll have to iron out if he wants to have any shot at winning you back. I don’t need to ask if he loves you, that’s actually pretty clear, so I’m just gonna hit him over the head and tell him he’s an idiot if he won’t listen to reason.’’ Daniel said with a bit of a shrug.</p><p>‘’And…you think that’s enough to make him change? If he didn’t listen to me, why would he listen to you?’’ Max asked with a bit of a pout. Even though he liked the thought of Charles acting less toxic around him, it would hurt a little if it wasn’t him to change the Monegasque because they loved each other, but someone else. </p><p>Daniel just shrugged a little in return. ‘’Like I said, I won’t get distracted. I’ll just keep hammering my point home until the boy sees some reason.’’ He put his hands down on the table then and got up as he smiled at Max. ‘’Now, you have been asleep for some hours, so it’s getting pretty late. Are you up for some blanky cuddles and scary movie night?’’ He asked curiously.</p><p>Max started to chuckle a little then and nodded, getting up too. ‘’Yeah, that sounds like a really good idea actually. Uhm, can I charge my phone? I think it died when I was asleep.’’ Dan nodded easily and shooed Max over to the living room while he took the Dutchman’s phone and put it in the charger. He joined his friend a couple minutes later with a large bowl of popcorn and a gigantic, soft blanket, before putting on the most terrifying movie he could find.</p><p>He knew that if there was anything good to distract your mind for an hour of two, it was being absolutely fucking terrified of an evil monster trying to get you. It worked well enough, with Max pretty much jumping into Daniel’s lap about 10 times over the course of the entire thing. In the end, Daniel just held him protectively, gently rubbing his side as they cuddled underneath the blanket together. </p><p>After the movie had ended, Max decided that he wanted to go and check his phone. After teasing him first for a solid minute about how the monster would get him if he were to leave the safety of their blanket, Max finally rolled his eyes and wormed himself out of Daniel’s embrace, before he walked over to the kitchen. </p><p>He had to turn his phone on first, it having died sometime while he slept, and he realized he hadn’t really checked it since leaving Charles’ apartment. As the phone booted up, an instant flood of messages entered the screen. Some were from Lando, asking if he was okay since he had ended the call so suddenly, but most were from Charles. They asked where he was, and as he read on Max realized that the Monegasque must’ve gone over to his apartment to check on him in the morning. Max had already given Charles the code to get in, so that wouldn’t have been too much of a problem.</p><p>The messages started sounding more urgent after that, asking him to please give any sign of life, and Max instantly felt that guilty feeling in his stomach again. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to get rid of it as he suddenly felt a hand on his side. He screamed and turned around at near light speed, almost lashing out before it realized it was Daniel playing a prank on him.</p><p>Max could feel his bottom lip trembling a little then, the wave of emotions that the messages and being scared washed over him a little too overwhelming. Daniel was quick to wrap him up again, to rub his back and tell him that he was okay, but Max knew that that wasn’t true. He wasn’t okay. Not at all. And he was pretty sure he had pushed away the only person that could make him feel it.</p>
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<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Limbo</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am so, so sorry for leaving it this long. I have just been so busy moving out and getting settled in my new place and why didn't anyone tell me that moving was this much work?</p><p>Ugh. Anyway, I started writing again this morning and I missed my boys so much and I love them so much that I might've wrote the chapter in one sitting...oh me.</p><p>Anyway, hope you enjoy, feel free to leave kudos or a comment if you do! (:</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘’Maxy, Maxy, hey, it’s okay. It’s just me.’’ Daniel told him, wrapping his arms tightly around Max’s waist as he held him close and rubbed his back a little. Max was shaking as Daniel held him, and the Dutchman could feel renewed tears running down his cheeks as he leaned into him for comfort. ‘’I’m sorry, Maxy. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to come and see if you were alright.’’ Dan added in a whisper, placing a kiss on Max’s temple as he slowly tried to pull away.</p><p>Max wasn’t having any of that though. He just clung on to Daniel tighter, burying his face into the Aussie’s shoulder and taking deep, laboured breaths in an attempt to calm down his absolutely racing heart. ‘’I scared Charles.’’ He finally said quietly. ‘’He went looking for me and I’m gone and he’s so worried and I have to let him know I’m okay.’’ He added, swallowing thickly as he finally let go of Daniel and looked at him with red, puffy eyes from crying.</p><p>The Aussie sighed deeply and very gently cupped Max’s cheek, caressing the skin with his thumb for a moment before he gently took the Dutchman’s phone from him with his other hand. ‘’You’re not going to do anything but relax and sleep, Maxy.’’ He told him. His tone wasn’t commanding or strict or anything, but in his current state, he knew Max would listen to his best friend.</p><p>‘’I’m going to quickly let Charles know that you’re with me and that you’re okay and that I’ll come and see him in the morning.’’ Daniel said, ending on a small smile to try and reassure Max a little more. Max nodded softly in return to Daniel and took another deep breath in an attempt to get his body to relax a little more. ‘’I think I’m gonna go to bed.’’ He said, before he glanced in the direction of Daniel’s bedroom, wondering if the Aussie would let him sleep in there.</p><p>Daniel of course immediately caught on and chuckled softly. ‘’You can sleep with me as long as you don’t try any funny business.’’ He teased with a wink, before he sent Max on his way over to the bedroom. The Dutchman went on his way, closing the door behind himself and undressing before he crawled into the bed that smelled very much like Daniel. Usually, that would’ve been a bit of a turn on to Max, but tonight, it was nice and calming, and that really was all that he could ask for.</p><p>As he laid there, staring at the ceiling, he could hear Daniel talking. He couldn’t quite hear what was being said, but he assumed that the man was on the phone with Charles. They spoke for a few minutes, before the Aussie finally came into the bedroom to join Max in bed. Daniel undressed himself, the sight of which much to Max’s surprise wasn’t really turning him on either, and finally crawled into bed with his best friend.</p><p>Max instantly moved over closer to Daniel, snuggling into his embrace and sighing softly. ‘’Thanks for this, Dan. I just really need it.’’ He explained with a small smile as he curled himself up and got ready to sleep. ‘’My pleasure, Maxy. All because I love you.’’ Dan replied easily, placing a kiss on Max’s head as he relaxed, too. Max smiled a little at that, and just managed to return a ‘’Love you, too.’’ Before he drifted off into much needed sleep.</p><p>When Max woke up the next morning, he was still in Daniel’s arms. The Aussie had started spooning him somewhere during the night, and when Max moved around slightly to stretch out his limbs, he realized what had most likely been the thing to have woken him up. Specifically, that thing was between Daniel’s legs, currently poking him in his lower back. </p><p>From the way Dan was breathing, Max figured that the Aussie was still very much asleep, and that this was just an effect of the things they had often done together, but still. Max felt flattered that Daniel would still be attracted to him after being such a gigantic mess for the entire day the day before.</p><p>He didn’t know what it was. The need for someone to want him, maybe. Or the fact that Daniel had taken such amazing care of him when he needed it most. Fact was, Max slowly turned around in his best friend’s arms and slipped his right hand down the Australian’s boxers, wrapping his fingers around the man’s cock and slowly jerking him off.</p><p>The sensation woke Daniel up almost instantly. He let out a low moan as Max jerked him off and only pulled his friend in closer, gazing at him through hooded eyes for a moment, before he pulled him in fully to kiss him properly.</p><p>Dan didn’t last long. It was only minutes between kissing Max and being jerked off in all the ways he loved by the Dutchman that he came with a long, drawn out moan. He let his head fall back afterwards, breathing a little heavily, while Max just giggled a little as he sat up straight and looked down at the Aussie with a smile. ‘’I’ll get something to clean you up.’’ He told the man, before he quickly jumped up and headed into the bathroom to get a washcloth or something.</p><p>When he returned, he quickly cleaned his friend up, before he just got back into bed, cuddling nice and close. ‘’Morning.’’ He said with a small smile, seeming infinitely more relaxed than the day before. Daniel just started laughing then and shook his head. ‘’You are such a fucking menace. You’ll be the death of me one day, Verstappen.’’ He noted with a bit of a smirk.</p><p>‘’You love me.’’ Max replied, shrugging a little as he cuddled close and nuzzled into Dan’s chest a little, just wanting a bit more relaxed cuddle time in this safe space before he’d actually have to go out and face the day. Dan easily obliged Max in his whims and gently started to rub the Dutchman’s back as they cuddled together. ‘’So…no offense and all, but….any particular reason why you just gave me a hand job if you love someone else?’’</p><p>Max frowned a little at that and turned his head to look up at Daniel as he spoke. ‘’What are you talking about?’’ He asked, seemingly a little confused. ‘’It’s…us. Love has nothing to do with it, right? I just wanted to say thank you for being such an amazing friend and you were horny. One plus one equals a hand job for Dan.’’</p><p>Daniel hummed softly and moved his hand to start to play gently with Max’s hair instead. ‘’Okay, Maxy.’’ He said and smiled. ‘’Thing is, Charlie might not see it that way, what with him being jealous and all, so you coming onto me might not be great for my whole ‘getting you cuties back together’-plan.’’ He explained. Max sighed softly then. ‘’It’s not like we actually fucked, Dan.’’ He grumbled, getting a little agitated as the Aussie just wouldn’t drop the subject.</p><p>‘’Why can’t I ever just do anything nice without getting punished for it?’’ He demanded, before he pushed Dan’s hand away from his hair and got out of bed, putting his pants on in a bit of an aggressive manner. Daniel was almost instantly behind him again, arms around his waist and lips in his neck. ‘’Calm down, Maxy.’’ The Aussie said quietly. ‘’I was just saying. I loved your hand job very, very much, thank you.’’ He added with a bit of a chuckle. </p><p>‘’You can go and relax if you want to. I’ll make us some breakfast.’’ He added then, giving Max a little smack on the butt as he went into the bathroom to freshen up a bit more for the day. With a sigh, Max got dressed fully then and went into the living room to try and find the phone that Daniel had not given back the night before. Wholly unsuccessful, he finally sat down on the couch, moping a little and waiting for his friend to finally finish his shower so that he could get the device back.</p><p>When Daniel finally walked out a full fifteen minutes later, Max sighed impatiently. ‘’Finally! Your showers are so long you almost put Charles to shame!’’ He told the man as he rolled his eyes a little. ‘’Where’s my phone?’’ He then demanded. In response, Daniel raised an eyebrow as he looked at Max, and hummed softly. ‘’Why do you want it back?’’ He asked, making Max frown deeply.</p><p>‘’What the fuck do you mean, why? It’s my phone, I want it back.’’ He stated again, crossing his arms. ‘’I just meant, are you going to contact Charles or not? Because I think we both agreed that that would be a bad idea.’’ Daniel replied with a bit of a sigh. </p><p>Max just huffed a little then and shrugged. ‘’Don’t think so, no. And still, if I do that’s my choice, not yours. Where is it?’’ Daniel sighed again, before he opened a drawer, fished out Max’s phone and handed it over. ‘’There. Now…please be a good boy, Maxy. I’m going to try and fix this, please just keep your cool for a little longer.’’ He pleaded, before he went over to the kitchen to make them their breakfast.</p><p>Besides Charles, there was one person whose name almost showed up as many times in Max’s phone with notifications as Charles’ did: Lando. And…given he had just hung up on him when his fight with Charles started and hadn’t actually gotten back to him yet, he decided that he did owe his friend at least a phone call. And so he called, already feeling guilty.</p><p>‘’FUCKING FINALLY!’’ Lando exclaimed as soon as he picked the phone. ‘’Do you have any fucking idea how long I’ve been waiting to hear from you, you absolute dick?!’’ Max winced a little as he was yelled at, but his eyes went a little wide when, very quietly, he heard someone say ‘’Cálmate amor, cálmate.’’ In a sleepy voice. All of Max’s nerves immediately flew out the window, and he focused on this one, huge thing. ‘’Are you still with Carlos? In bed by the sound of it?’’ He inquired.</p><p>Lando snorted at that. It was silent for a moment afterwards, and Max figured that Lando was glaring at Carlos for giving them away, before he continued. ‘’None of your fucking business, but yes, I am. Now back to you and how you’re a terrible fucking friend for hanging up on me and not saying anything for 2 days and Charles calling me in a panic to tell me that you’ve ended things with him!’’ Lando was getting more worked up the more he talked, and Max could just sigh deeply in return.</p><p>‘’I’m sorry, I just…I was in a really, really bad place, mate. We argued and I broke up with Charles like I said that I would have to and afterwards I just drove around for hours and finally ended up at Dan’s place. He’s been looking out for me and keeping possession of my phone so that I couldn’t contact Charles…I’m sorry.’’ Max knew that he was sounding pretty pathetic, and the sigh from the other end of the line confirmed it for him. </p><p>‘’I guess…’’ Lando finally said. ‘’Are you doing better now though?’’ He asked seriously, obviously still just very worried about his friend. ‘’Yeah, I’m doing better. I talked things through with Dan and he’s going over to Charles’ to try and talk to him to get him to…be a little more considerate if we are to try again.’’ Lando hummed softly at that. ‘’Is that what you really want deep down then? To try again?’’ He asked Max, who nodded softly.</p><p>‘’I…yeah, I do. I love him. And I truly hope that we can be happy together if he does his best to try and be a little less…well what he has been for some time now.’’ Max added with a bit of a sigh. ‘’Alright.’’ Lando said. Max could hear that the Brit was about to continue speaking when his breath suddenly hitched and he let out a bit of a whimper. Max’s eyes went wide again at that. He didn’t know exactly what was happening, but he was pretty sure Carlos was up to no good.</p><p>‘’I uhm…I’ll speak to you later then…bye, Max.’’ Lando hurried to say, before he ended the call. At that, Max just chuckled a little to himself and shook his head. He loved Lando, but he really did not need to hear him having sex with his former teammate, thank you very much.</p><p>After that, he and Daniel had a quiet breakfast together, which ended with Daniel clearing his throat as he put away their plates. ‘’So I was thinking I should go over to Charles as soon as possible to try and clear things up and try and get him to see reason. Are you okay with that…?’’ He asked Max, who was a little surprised. He had thought Dan wanted to wait it out a day or two, but apparently, that wasn’t the case anymore.</p><p>‘’I…yeah, okay.’’ He told Daniel with a small smile. He was incredibly nervous about this, but he didn’t want to dodge it all for too long either. He loved Charles Leclerc, and if this would help them be together again in a way that was actually healthy for the both of them, he wanted it to happen sooner, rather than later. </p><p>And so, after getting Max nice and settled on the couch with access to Netflix and a PlayStation and whatever else he might want to do to get his mind off of Charles for the time being, Daniel texted Charles he was on his way and left to go and speak with the Monegasque.</p><p>When he got to the apartment complex, Daniel took the familiar way up to Charles’ place and knocked on the door. He was still smiling as he got there, ready to do his part to get the cutest two little lovebirds that he knew back together. As soon as the door opened though, Daniel’s smile faded. Charles looked absolutely terrible. </p><p>He looked like he hadn’t slept since Max left, he was wearing a faded grey sweater and equally old looking sweatpants without socks, and he had a stubble on his face that told Daniel that he hadn’t been taking care of himself in the slightest. ‘’I…my god, Charlie, what happened to you?’’ Dan asked, blinking a few times to make sure he was seeing this correctly.</p><p>‘’I don’t know, Dan.’’ Charles said quietly, in no way looking or sounding like the combative man Daniel had talked to on the phone earlier. ‘’I don’t know what I did wrong. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t do anything. I just keep trying to figure out what I did wrong, how I could’ve done things differently. I just want him back. Help me…please.’’ He looked pathetic as he begged Daniel, and the Aussie could only nod in return.</p><p>‘’I’ll try, Charlie. I’ll try.’’</p>
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<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Realizations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Here we are! Sorry it's been a while, life has just been overtaking me a little. Hope to get back into the normal groove of things soon enough.</p><p>Love you all for sticking with me &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Daniel stepped into the apartment when Charles let him in and sighed deeply. He could already tell that this was going to be a very difficult talk. However, Charles was his friend and in clear need of some help, and so priorities needed to be made. ‘’When’s the last time you ate anything?’’ Dan demanded to know then, making Charles shrug a little in response. Eating was really not very high on his to do list.</p><p>‘’I don’t know….yesterday, I think? I had some fruit for breakfast…’’ Charles was frowning a little as he said it, furrowing his brow as he tried to think of something other than his now apparently ex-boyfriend. Daniel shook his head at that and gave Charles’ shoulder a little pat as he directed him towards the kitchen. ‘’Honestly if I wasn’t around the both of you would be starving to death.’’ He told the Monegasque, who just grumbled a little in response.</p><p>Charles sat down when he was told to and watched Daniel make him an omelette. When the food-filled plate was placed in front of him, he just sighed deeply and sat back in his chair. ‘’I’m not hungry.’’ He told the Aussie, who rolled his eyes and just sat down across from his friend. ‘’Yes you are. Heartbreak or not, you still need to eat. You’re a growing boy.’’ Daniel replied. ‘’Don’t make me feed you by force.’’</p><p>After a long, laboured sigh, Charles finally started to stuff the food into his mouth, though he was clearly doing so under protest. When he finished the last of the food on his plate, he pushed it forward a little and sighed, crossing his arms, and putting them down on the table with his forehead resting on them. </p><p>Charles was silent for a few minutes then, and Daniel let him have his moment of peace, before the Monegasque finally spoke up after a little while. ‘’Everything is terrible and I feel empty and heartbroken and I don’t know what I did wrong or why he hates me and I don’t know how to get him back.’’ </p><p>Daniel hummed softly in return as he listened. ‘’That’s why I came over here, Charlie. Look, Max loves you. He fell in love with you, and he still is hopelessly in love with you. He just can’t go on in the way things have been going between you two.’’ He explained, earning himself an exasperated groan from Charles.</p><p>‘’But how have things been going wrong? Did he really break up with me because he thinks that I am manipulating him? I mean…I…I can see that I might have a jealous problem, but I can change that. I…I…’’ Charles’ words failed him then, and Daniel reached out to gently take his hand in an attempt to calm the man down a little. ‘’Deep breaths, Charlie.’’ He said quietly. ‘’Think of what you want to say first. I’m not Max, so there’s no pressure. You can say anything you want to me, and take all the time you can possibly need.’’</p><p>Daniel’s words seemed to calm Charles down a little, and the pressing feeling that he had on his chest and the tightness of his throat seemed to dissipate at least a little bit. ‘’Daniel, please tell me the truth. Does Maxy really think that I wanted to manipulate him into thinking and doing certain things?’’ He closed his eyes as he waited for an answer, and as soon as Daniel replied with a gentle, but absolutely devastating ‘’Yes.’’ A sob shook the Monegasque’s body.</p><p>Charles pulled his hand away from Daniel and put it in front of his face instead, not wanting to show his friend the embarrassment of his tears. On the other end of the table, Daniel got up and walked behind Charles, hugging him around his waist and putting his chin down on his friend’s shoulder as he held him through the sobs. </p><p>He really had seen enough. He never really believed that Charles had ever manipulated Max on purpose, but even if he had, this was enough evidence for him to prove that that wasn’t the case. Charles really was as heartbroken as Max was, and because they were both absolute idiot boys who were hell-bent on ruining their own love and happiness, it would be up to Daniel to fix them.</p><p>He let Charles cry for a minute to get all of his emotions out, before he gently got the man to stand up so that they could sit down in the living room together. When they did, Daniel took Charles’ hand again, giving him a smile. ‘’You’re not alone in this, mate. I’m gonna try and help you.’’ He told his friend, who nodded softly in return, using his free hand to wipe at his eyes a little.</p><p>‘’Did Max tell you what I did wrong?’’ Charles asked quietly. Daniel nodded in response and hummed. ‘’Mhmm. Yes, he did. We talked for a long time about everything that happened between the two of you.’’ Charles sighed a little then and curled up on the couch, not really meeting Daniel’s gaze anymore. ‘’Could you please say what I did wrong so that I can try not to anymore…?’’</p><p>Daniel nodded softly. ‘’Yeah, I’ll do my best, mate.’’ He told Charles with a sad smile. ‘’Just…try and not be too hurt, alright? Some of Max’s grievances make sense, but he’s overreacting on others, too.’’ When Charles nodded that he understood, Daniel started talking.</p><p>‘’So like you said earlier, the two main things that seem to be the problem are the jealousy issues that you seem to have, and the fact that Max feels like you’re manipulating him more often than not. And on the surface, that’s what you need to work on, but…I think the main issue in your relationship is actually a little deeper than that.’’ Daniel explained, making Charles frown deeply at the Aussie.</p><p>‘’What do you mean? Deeper how? Like sexually?’’ Charles asked, not really understanding what Daniel was getting at. Daniel couldn’t help but snort a little, but he quickly shook his head. ‘’No, that’s not it, you idiot.’’ He said, still chuckling a little. ‘’The main issue in your relationship is trust. You two don’t fully trust each other, and that’s where these problems come from.’’</p><p>Charles continued to frown at Daniel’s answer and shook his head. ‘’No, that’s not true. I do trust Maxy. I do.’’ He argued, making Dan be the one to shake his head back at him. ‘’But you don’t though. Not completely. If you did, you wouldn’t be having this whole jealousy thing in the first place. And because Max can’t trust you back, he’s constantly scared you’re manipulating him after reading that dumb interview.’’</p><p>Charles seemed a little deflated after listening to Daniel, and he pulled his hand back as he completely curled up in on himself. ‘’But…then why don’t we trust each other…?’’ He asked quietly. ‘’I love him and he loves me, so…why isn’t it working then?’’</p><p>‘’I don’t think that’s really for me to say, Charlie. That’s really for you guys to figure out together.’’ Daniel replied with a kind smile. ‘’But if I were to guess I’d think that it probably has something to do with the fact that you’ve been rivals for almost 15 years. It’s been imprinted in your brains that you’re enemies and that you can’t trust each other. It takes a lot of work to get over that.’’ </p><p>Charles just sighed deeply and glanced over at Daniel then. ‘’I wasn’t manipulating him Dan. Honestly. I swear it.’’ He swallowed thickly after saying it, like he was terrified that his friend wouldn’t actually believe him either. Instead, Daniel reached over and rubbed Charles’ back for a moment. ‘’I know, mate. I know. It’s all just a bunch of unfortunate mistakes and miscommunications on top of each other. But that’s why I’m here.’’</p><p>He pulled back and smiled a little wider then. ‘’So, two things that you need to work on short term: don’t be so fucking jealous, and stop making Max feel like you’re manipulating him.’’ Charles let out a frustrated noise at that and just looked very done in general. ‘’But how, Dan?! How do I just magically not be awful to my boyfriend anymore when I didn’t realize that I was?’’</p><p>‘’I am getting to that, Charlie. Calm down, mate.’’ Dan said and hummed softly. He was aware that Charles was a very impatient person, but this was very much not something that could be rushed. ‘’First of all, trust Max in your relationship. Don’t think that everyone is going to steal him from you, because they aren’t. Not because they don’t want to, but because Max loves you more than anyone else in this world.’’</p><p>He stopped for a moment then, making sure that his words had really sunk in with Charles before he continued to speak. ‘’Secondly, and probably even more importantly, start listening to your boyfriend. The reason why Max thinks you’re manipulating him is because you aren’t listening to him or his concerns and because he loves you he just goes along with whatever you want to do, only to regret it later. For example…if Maxy wants to discuss your jealousy, maybe don’t just ignore him, fuck him, and go to sleep straight after. He might feel a little used and I think you can understand why.’’</p><p>Daniel’s last words really struck a nerve with Charles, and he stared at the man for a moment. ‘’Oh god…I really did do that, didn’t I…?’’ He asked quietly, making Daniel nod. ‘’You kinda did mate. And like I said, Maxy is head over heels with you, so it was only afterwards that he really processed what had happened there.’’</p><p>Charles closed his eyes for a moment, buried his face in his hands, and just let out a loud scream of frustration. ‘’I am so stupid! I am such an idiot! Why did I fucking act like this?! I let the man of my dreams walk out of my life because I am a stupid fucking idiot who can’t even take two seconds to listen to him!’’ He started shaking his head then and swallowed thickly. ‘’I don’t deserve Max.’’</p><p>‘’Yes you do.’’ Daniel instantly replied. ‘’Both of you are little idiots, but you’re absolutely perfect for each other. So, here’s what’s going to happen.’’ He said as he got up from the couch. ‘’From now on, you are going to listen, really listen to Maxy and how he’s feeling, alright?’’ He asked Charles, raising his eyebrows at the Monegaseque.</p><p>‘’Alright.’’ Charles answered instantly. ‘’I will. Of course I will.’’ Daniel smiled when he got a positive answer and clapped his hands. ‘’Right. Then you are now going to take a shower and shave, because…no offense mate, but you’re really not in a state right now to go and win your boyfriend back…’’</p><p>Charles looked down at himself and sighed softly. ‘’Are you saying you want to take me to Maxy right now…? Does he want to see me?’’ He caught the hopeful sounding tone of his voice, and it made him wince a little. He didn’t want to be too excited, especially if it turned it nothing was happening.</p><p>‘’Yeah, that’s exactly the plan. You’re both absolutely miserable, and the only way for you both to be happy again is to get you two back together as the happy couple that you should be.’’ Dan replied happily. ‘’So, go on then. Go get ready and put on some nice clothes. Show Max that you’re making an effort to win him back.’’</p><p>Charles did get up quickly enough, and while he was busy in the bathroom, Daniel decided to help out and so some cleaning, as well as actually text Max that he talked with Charles, and that he’d be taking the man to come and see him soon. When Charles finally returned after some time, he was wearing jeans, a comfy white sweater and his nerdy-looking glasses.</p><p>As Charles watched Daniel look him up and down, he blushed a little. ‘’Max always says how good I look with this sweater and my glasses so….’’ He said, making the Aussie chuckle. ‘’So you made the correct choice to seduce him with.’’ He replied with a wink. ‘’Are you all ready to go then? I sent Max a text, so he knows to expect us.’’</p><p>Charles’ smile fell, and he just stared at Daniel like a deer in the headlights. ‘’I…he’s expecting us? Is he mad? Does he want to see me?’’ He asked, nervously plucking at his sleeves a little. Daniel walked over and put his hands on Charles’ shoulders. ‘’Charlie, deep breaths. Max is as nervous to see you as you are to see him. And it’s going to be just fine, because you both want the same thing.’’</p><p>Charles nodded softly then, he was still biting his lip a little, but he want along with Daniel easily enough. They headed down to the Aussie’s car, and Charles just nervously bounced his leg for the entirety of the short journey over. </p><p>When they finally got there, Daniel took Charles over to the front door and opened it, letting the Monegasque in and taking him over to the living room, where Max was already waiting for them. As soon as he heard the door, the Dutchman got up from the couch, looking nervous and just staring right at Charles as the man walked in. </p><p>There was a long, heavy silence between them, before Max was finally the one to speak up. ‘’Hey…’’ He said quiety. ‘’You look…well amazing, as always.’’ He told Charles quietly. After that, it all sort of happened in a flash. Before Max knew it, Charles was right in front of him, his arms around his neck and his lips on his own. It was only a second, but Charles looked mortified as he pulled away. ‘’I-I’m so sorry, Maxy. I…I don’t know what came over me. I just saw you and I missed you so much and I…’’</p><p>Max managed to give Charles a small smile after he came over the initial shock. ‘’It’s okay, Charlie. I…I missed you too. But…we really need to talk.’’</p>
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<a name="section0020"><h2>20. New Beginnings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>2 Chapters in 3 days! Aren't I super productive?!</p><p>Enjoy!...hopefully</p><p>Love you all &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘’I missed you too, Charlie. But… we really need to talk.’’ Charles smiled nervously at Max’s words. He knew that they did of course, but those words were always incredibly ominous. </p><p>Max responded to Charles’ smile with a small one of his own, before he glanced over at Daniel. ‘’Dan…thanks for everything you’ve done for us. You’ve been the greatest friend that either of us could possibly ask for, but…would you mind if we talk in private?’’ He asked the Aussie, who had been taking in the scene with a bright smile. </p><p>‘’Sure, Maxy.’’ Dan replied easily. ‘’As long as you promise not to have sex in my bedroom. That’s what the guest room is for.’’ He said and winked. ‘’I’ll go for a run. It’s time anyway.’’ With that, Daniel turned around and walked to his bedroom to change. </p><p>‘’Sit.’’ Max told Charles, gesturing to the couch. I’ll make us some coffee and we can talk.’’ The Dutchman said, before he headed over to the kitchen. He could hear the front door when Daniel left, and walked back with two large cups of coffee a few minutes later, handing one over to Charles and sitting down next to him with the other.</p><p>‘’I see you’ve made an effort for me.’’ Max noted with an amused smile as he took a sip. Charles chuckled a little at that and nodded. ‘’Well I know that you like it when I wear this so…I did.’’ He replied. They stayed silent for a moment after that, and it was Charles who cleared his throat first.</p><p>‘’Maxy…I’m really, really sorry. I didn’t realize that I was manipulating you or being a bad boyfriend until Daniel pointed it out to me. And…I know that I have a jealous problem. But I promise that I will try to get rid of that!’’ Charles was looking truly remorseful, and he was biting his lip nervously as he waited for Max’s response to his words.</p><p>At first, Max just sighed very deeply. He stared down into his coffee for a moment, gathering his thoughts and trying to figure out how to put them into words exactly. Finally, he looked back at Charles, seeming a lot more confident than usual when speaking to the unbearably sexy love of his life.</p><p>‘’While I want to…desperately even…you understand that I can’t just say ‘okay’ to that and get back together with you, right?’’ Max asked quietly. ‘’I felt so hurt, Charles. You just didn’t listen to me, no matter what I said or wanted or needed. I desperately needed to talk with you, and you just seduced me, fucked me, and went right to sleep without acknowledging my feelings at all.’’</p><p>Charles had to close his eyes for a moment as Max told him off, and he swallowed thickly. ‘’I know…’’ He said quietly. ‘’And like I said, I am really very sorry, Maxy.’’ He added, just to be sure. ‘’And I understand how I’ve been an asshole. I…I was very tired that night after Milan and everything, but I know that’s no excuse. I promise that from now on, I will always make time for you and your feelings, because I love you.’’</p><p>As Charles told him that he loved him, Max could just feel the corners of his mouth curling up a little. It was just still so amazing to hear and it suddenly became really difficult for Max to not just forgive Charles immediately and dive back into his arms.</p><p>‘’Do you really promise that? Is that really a promise that you can keep?’’ Max finally ended up asking. Charles nodded, taking one hand off the cup to put it on Max’s knee instead. ‘’I do, Maxy. I…well you know me. I’m a gigantic idiot sometimes, but I promise that whenever you tell me that you need to talk to me, I will make the time. No matter what. Fuck work or whatever. There’s only one person in the world that matters to me. And it’s you.’’</p><p>Max’s face broke into a full smile then, and he put his own hand down onto Charles’. ‘’Thank you for saying that, Charlie.’’ He said and couldn’t help but sigh happily. ‘’And what about the whole jealousy thing?’’ He asked then, although he was already gently caressing the back of Charles’ hand again with his thumb.</p><p>Charles hummed softly at that. ‘’Well…I talked about that with Daniel, too.’’ He admitted. ‘’I know that I’ve been struggling with that quite a lot, but…I think I have it under control now. I love you, Maxy. And because I love you, I trust you, too. And that means that even though everyone else might want to get with you, I trust you to just be mine.’’</p><p>Max hummed softly and response, before he just started to chuckle a little. ‘’You’re such an idiot.’’ He commented, earning himself a bit of a shocked look from Charles. ‘’I love you too, you dummy. And you’re the sexiest man in the entire fucking world. I would never, ever, ever even think about being with anyone else, you know that.’’</p><p>Charles smiled a little at that, and gently took Max’s hand fully into his own. ‘’Does that mean that you’re willing to take me back…?’’ He asked quietly. In response, Max’s smile only widened a little further, before he nearly dove on top of Charles, kissing him deeply as he ended up on top of him as they made out on the couch.</p><p>‘’I missed you so much, Charlie.’’ Max said between kisses, holding on tightly to the man as if he never wanted to let him go again. Charles was very much feeling the exact same thing, holding Max with his hands slipping underneath his shirt to caress his back. </p><p>‘’Fuck…’’ Max mumbled, shivering a little as Charles’ fingers gently ran over his skin. ‘’Bedroom. Now.’’ He said, and he could feel his boyfriend tensing up a little underneath him. ‘’Fuck, really?’’ The Monegasque asked, pulling away to look up into Max’s eyes. </p><p>The Dutchman looked properly turned on, his mouth hanging a little open and his eyes looking dark with lust. ‘’Yes. Bedroom. Fucking. Come on.’’ Max said again, getting up and taking Charles’ hand to drag him along to the guest room. </p><p>Charles had barely closed the door to the room before Max was on him again, kissing him deeply and trying to get the Monegasque’s sweater off at the exact same time, which proved a little difficult to do. So, obliging his boyfriend, Charles pulled away and took his sweater off, after taking off his glasses and putting them aside for safekeeping.</p><p>He turned back to Max with a smile and reached out to gently caress his cheek as they stared into each other’s eyes. ‘’Tell me what you want, Maxy. I’ll make sure to make it amazing.’’ He told his boyfriend, before he leaned in and started to kiss the man’s neck.</p><p>Max gasped softly as he felt Charles’ soft lips on his skin, knowing just where to apply pressure to make the Dutchman shiver and moan. ‘’I…Fuck, I…’’ Max stammered, clearly having some trouble getting the words out with all this distraction going on.</p><p>By now, Charles had also gotten Max’s pants open, and he was in the process of pushing them down. ‘’Come on, Maxy. Use your words, you can tell me.’’ He said, a little smirk on his lips. He knew exactly how he could Max feel if he wanted to, but it was still very nice to have it confirmed from time to time.</p><p>‘’Fuck me, please.’’ Max finally managed to say, holding on tightly to Charles as the man worked him up even more. ‘’Oh that can definitely be arranged.’’ Charles replied, and Max could just feel the smirk against his skin. </p><p>In the end, neither of them lasted long. Their sex was quick and dirty, desperate for it as they both were. Afterwards, Max was still breathing heavily, staring up at the ceiling of what was still Daniel’s guest room, while Charles was in the bathroom, getting something to help clean him up.</p><p>His eyes fell closed after a moment, but he couldn’t help but smirk as he heard Charles walk in and felt a lukewarm, wet cloth on his skin. ‘’Make-up sex is amazing, Charlie.’’ He told the Monegasque, who just started chuckling in response and shook his head.</p><p>‘’I know. It’d almost make me fight with you more often.’’ Charles finally said, and continued to chuckle a little to himself. After he finished cleaning up, he got back into bed with his lover and wrapped his arms around his waist, pulling him in nice and clothes and leaning in to kiss him lazily.</p><p>Max instantly returned the kiss and hummed softly against Charles’ lips. ‘’I’ll kick you in the balls if you ever dare fight with me like that again.’’ He told the man, before he gave him a sweet smile and put his head down on his boyfriend’s shoulder. </p><p>He looked up into Charles’  eyes and hummed softly, reaching out and gently pushing the hair away from his forehead. ‘’You look tired, Charlie.’’ He said quietly. ‘’Have you slept at all?’’ He asked then, frowning a little as he gently ran his fingers over his boyfriend’s chest as they cuddled together.</p><p>With a bit of a sigh, Charles finally shook his head. ‘’No…but it’s fine. I can sleep when I’m dead, or whatever.’’ When that earned him an angry look from Max, he sighed again. ‘’I was too worried about you, babe. I didn’t know what had happened and then when I couldn’t find you I…I can take a nap now, okay?’’ He asked quietly.</p><p>That answer seemed to satisfy Max a lot more, and the Dutchman nodded softly. He placed a gentle kiss on Charles’ lips, and cuddled in nice and close, making sure they were both comfortable. ‘’Goodnight then, Charlie. I’ll wake you up when…you need to. I don’t know for what yet.’’ </p><p>After getting a little chuckle first, Charles finally nodded and let his eyes fall closed. ‘’bonne nuit, mon amour,’’ He whispered, before he finally fell asleep in his boyfriend’s loving embrace. Max stayed with him, happy to be back in Charles’ arms like this, even though he wasn’t planning on napping himself. </p><p>It was only when he heard the front door again that Max, a little wide-eyed, quickly got out of bed. He put his clothes on again and managed to exit the room just before Daniel started calling for them. ‘’Hey, Dan.’’ Max quickly said, accompanied by a happy smile. ‘’Please don’t be too loud, Charlie’s asleep. He really needed it.’’</p><p>‘’Yeah he did.’’ Dan replied. He was sweaty all over from his run, and currently downing an entire bottle of water in one go. ‘’So I imagine you guys made up then?’’ He asked, raising an eyebrow at Max when he finished drinking.</p><p>‘’Yeah, we did.’’ Max replied. He blushed a little and bit his lip after he spoke, which Daniel being Daniel quickly caught on to. ‘’Oh…no for god’s sake…Max…’’ He sighed deeply then. ‘’In my house, why?’’ He asked, making the Dutchman shrug. ‘’You literally said that the guest room was for fucking, Dan.’’ He replied a little matter-of-factly. ‘’As a joke! I didn’t actually offer it for use!’’ The Aussie replied, making Max sigh a little ‘’I just…We’d been apart and there were feelings and I just really, really needed to have sex with my boyfriend.’’ He explained. ‘’I’m sorry for using your guest room.’’</p><p>Daniel finally just shook his head. ‘’You are cleaning that room before you leave. Both of you.’’ He told Max, before he easily slipped back into his normal, relaxed self. ‘’You want something to eat then? I imagine you’ve had almost as intense a workout as I just had.’’ He teased, making Max laugh.</p><p>‘’Yeah sure, thanks.’’ The Dutchman replied, sitting down in the kitchen while Daniel went to work on making some food for them. After a little while, he sat down across from Max, nodding back towards the counter. ‘’I made extra for Charles when he wakes up, you can take it to him after we eat. I’m gonna go shower anyway.’’</p><p>Max ended up doing just that. He ate with Dan, making some nice small talk, after which he took Charles’  food along and headed back to the guest room, where Charles was still in an absolute coma. He had moved around a little, now lying on his stomach with his arm now hanging off the bed, his leg out from under the covers, and drooling a little onto the pillow. Still though, he was the most gorgeous man that Max had ever laid eyes on.</p><p>Max put the plate down on the nightstand and placed a gentle kiss on top of Charles’  head, before he got back into bed with his boyfriend. Apparently, the dipping of the mattress was enough for the Monegasque, cause he almost instantly rolled back over to curl up into Max’s side with a pleased sigh.</p><p>‘’God, you’re so cute.’’ Max whispered to his boyfriend, holding on tightly to Charles as he slept. As he laid there, waiting patiently for his boyfriend to wake up again, his mind couldn’t help but drift to what had happened over the last few days. </p><p>He was still worried about whether they were going to be okay in the long run, but he really tried to put those thoughts aside for the time being. All that mattered right then, right there, was that they were back together again, and they were hopelessly in love.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you all so, so, so much for sticking with me. I need some time to think of what I want to write next, but I’m thinking something properly AU. With my boys of course &lt;3</p><p>Give me suggestions if you like! Maybe for one-shots, too...</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm also on <a href="https://njh-1996.tumblr.com/"> Tumblr </a><br/>Feel free to hit me up if you want to share your thoughts there! :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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